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The authorship of “News from Spayne and Holland” and its Bearing on the Genuineness of the Confessions of the Blessed Henry Walpole, S.J.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

W. F. Rea S.J.
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Extract

In an article contributed to “The Month” for November 1951 the present writer expressed doubt about the genuineness of the confessions which Henry Walpole is said to have written during his imprisonment in the Tower in 1594. These enigmatical confessions, which are in the Public Record Office, were published by Father Pollen in volume V of the Catholic Record Society Publication. In the article in “The Month” the present writer based his argument on the government’s failure to use such compromising confessions, on the absence in Walpole”s subsequent conduct and correspondence of any sign of such a moral collapse as these pages represent, and lastly on Walpole's apparent admission in the confessions that he translated and augmented “Philopater”, a remark so fantastic that Walpole could not have made it. For the development of these arguments I must refer my readers to the pages of “The Month”. What is here aimed at is to show that the book which Walpole really did “translate and augment” is the anonymous work, entitled “News from Spayne and Holland”.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , 1951 , pp. 220 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1951

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References

Notes

1. Joseph, Creswell, Historia de la Vida v Martyrio que padecio en Inglaterra….. el P. Henrique Valpolo . Madrid. 1596.Google Scholar

2. News from Spayne and Holland, p. 1.; C. R.S.V, pp. 247, 253.

3. News from Spayne etc., p.3.; C.R.S.V, Ibid.

4. News from Spayne etc., p. 41; Diary of the Walloon College of St. Omers. Enghien MSS. c. 1330. All this information about Walpole is confirmed by Creswell's life, pp. 6–9.

5. News from Spayne, etc., p. 1.

6. From page 5 to page 11. Only every second page in the book is numbered, and it actually contains 81 pages, though the last page is numbered 41.

7. Catholic Record Society Publications, XIV, pp. 1–13.

8. C.R.S. XIV, p. 9. Note.

9. C.R.S. V, p. 263.

10. I am indebted for this knowledge to Mr. David Rogers of the Bodleian Library. It is worth noting that a priest. Robert Bardwys, confessed before Richard Young on March 31, 1394 that Verstegan had shown him a copy of “News from Spayne and Holland”, “which is now in the press, presently to be printed.” A marginal note adds that 4,000 were already printed. Hatfield Papers, IV, p. 98. This, of course, was three months after Walpole's arrest.

11. For these details see Creswell, op. cit. pp. 6–13; C.R.S., V, pp. 247, 253–4.

12. C.R.S., V, pp. 248, 253. Creswell, op. cit. p. 9, quoting a letter written by Walpole to Persons on November 13, 1593.

13. op. cit. p. 9.

14. The letter sent to Persons by Walpole while he was at Antwerp is mentioned in Walpole's letter, already referred to, which was written at St. Omers on November 13. Creswell, op. cit. p. 9.

15. The mention of Philopater begins as follows, “In the 11 article I had forgotten naming Philopaters book to raeanclon yt it was begunne to be translated etc.” C.R.S. v. pp. 265, 267.

16. He twice mentions that he translated Philopater, C.R.S. v, pp.265, 267, and on the second occasion adds in a marginal note, “This booke at my departure (i.e. from Spain) was not hälfe done.” Actually Philopater was translated at least eight months before Walpole left Spain.