Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/10

Baker behallf become an humble suitor unto you, to bestowe on them such bookes as you please, either manuscript or printed, being in English, conteining contemplation, Saints lives, or other devotions. Hampooles workes are proper for them. I wish I had Hilltons scala perfectionis in latein; it would helpe the understanding of the English (and some of them understande latein). The favour you shall do them herein, will be had in memorie both towarde you and your posteritie, whereof it maie please god to sende some hether to be of the number, as there is allreadie one of the name, if not of your kindred. This bearer will convey hether such bookes as it shall please you to single out and deliver to him' (MS. Cotton. Jul. C. iii. f. 12).

In 1633 Baker removed to Douay, and became a conventual at St. Gregory's. From thence he was sent on the English mission, where his time was divided between Bedfordshire and London. He appears to have been chaplain to Mrs. Watson, mother of one of the first nine novices of the convent of Cambrai. Eventually he settled in Holborn, where he carried on his meditation, solitude, mental prayer, and exercises of an internal life to the last. He died in Gray's Inn Lane on 9 Aug. 1641, after four days' illness, of an infectious disorder closely resembling the plague.

Dr. Oliver truly observes that 'Father Baker shone pre-eminently as a master of the spiritual life; he was the hidden man of the heart absorbed in heavenly contemplation.' Nine folio volumes of ascetical treatises by him were formerly kept in the convent at Cambrai, but unfortunately many of these manuscripts perished at the seizure of that religious nouse. Wood, Dodd, and Sweeney give the titles of thirty writings by Baker on spiritual subjects that are still extant. From Baker's manuscripts Father Serenus Cressy compiled the work entitled 'Sancta Sophia. Or Directions for the Prayer of Contemplation, &c. Extracted out of more than XL. Treatises written by the late Ven. Father F. Augustin Baker, A Monke of the English Congregation of the Holy Order of St. Benedict: And Methodically digested by the R. F. Serenus Cressy, of the same Order and Congregation, and printed at the Charges of his Convent of S. Gregories in Doway,'2 vols., Douay, 1657, 8vo, with a fine engraved portrait of Baker, in his monk's habit, prefixed. A new edition, by the Very Rev. Dom Norbert Sweeney, D.D., was published at London in 1876. In 1657 there was also published another work by Baker, entitled 'The Holy Practises of a Devine Lover or the Sainctly Ideota Deuotions. The Contents of the booke are contained in the ensuinge page, Paris, 1657, 12mo. The contents are: (i) The Summarie of Perfection; (ii) The Directions: for these Holy Exercises and Ideota Deuotions; (iii) A Catalogue of such Bookes as are fitt for Contemplatiue Spirits; (iv) The Holy Exercises and ldeots Deuotions; (v) The Toppe of the Heauenlie ladder, or the Highest steppe of Prayer and Perfection, by the Example of a Pilgrime goinge to Jerusalem.' Some religious tracts by Baker are preserved in the British Museum (Add. MS. 11510). Baker is sometimes considered to give countenance to the errors of the Quietists, but orthodox Roman catholic writers hold that he is perfectly free from all taint of false doctrine. Moreover, his doctrine was approved in a general assembly of the English Benedictine monks in 1633. Objections were taken by Father Francis Hull to his conduct as spiritual director of the nunnery at Cambrai; and Father Baker wrote a vindication of his conduct, now preserved among the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian (C 460). In the same collection (A 36) is a packet of letters, chiefly dated 3 March 1655, from nuns at Cambrai, complaining of proceedings on the part of Claude White, president of the English Benedictine concregation, to compel them to give up certain books of Father Baker's charged with containing poisonous and diabolical doctrine.

Although a large portion of his life was occupied in mental prayer and meditation, Baker was a diligent student of ecclesiastical history and antiquities. Some persons having contended that the ancient Benedictine congregation in England was dependent on that of Cluni in the diocese of Mâcon, founded about the year 910, Father Baker, at the wish of his superiors, devoted much time to refute this error. For this purpose he inspected very carefully the monuments and evidences in public and private collections in London and elsewhere. He had the benefit of the opinions of Sir Robert Cotton, John Selden, Sir Henry Spelman, and William Camden, and the result of his researches is embodied in the learned folio volume, entitled 'Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia, sive Disceptatio Historica de Antiquitate Ordinis,' published by order of the general congregation holden in 1625, and printed at Douay in 1626. His friend. Father John Jones, D.D., reduced the mass of materials into respectable Latinity, and they left Father Clement Reyner, their assistant, an excellent scholar, to edit the work, so that it passes for being finished 'operâ et industria R. P. Clementis Reyneri.'

Baker's six folio volumes of collections for