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 with a breife answer to his crakinge and calumnious confutinge of Papistes by Papistes themselues,' 1605 (another edition, Douay, 1606). 24. 'Quæstiones duæ: quarum 1a est, an liceat Catholicis Anglicanis. . . Protestantium ecclesias vel preces adire: 2da utrum non si precibus ut concionibus saltem hæreticis. . . licite possint interesse easque audire' [St. Omer], 1607. 25. 'The dolefull knell of Thomas Bell. That is a full and sounde ansvver to his pamphlet intituled: The Popes fvneral. Which he published against a treatise of myne called The fore-runner of Bels dovvnefal. . . . By B. C. student in diuinitie. Printed at Roan, 1607.' 26. 'A treatise tending to mitigation tovvards Catholicke-subiectes in England. . . . Against the seditious wrytings of Thomas Morton, minister. By P. R.,' 1607 (the first part treats of Rebellion, the second concerns the doctrine of Equivocation). 27. 'Bells triall examined, that is, a refutation of the treatise intituled The Triall of the newe religion. By B. C. Likewise a short review of one T. Rogers. Printed at Roan, 1608.' 28. 'The Judgment of a Catholicke Englishman liuing in banishment for his religion. . . concerning a late booke [by K. James] entituled: Triplici nodo triplex cuneus, or an apologie for the oath of allegiance. . . . wherin the said oath is shewn to be vnlawful. . . .' 1608. 29. 'Dutifull and respective considerations upon foure severall heads. . . proposed by the high and mighty Prince James. . . in his late book of Premonition to all Christian princes. . . . By a late minister and preacher in England,' St. Omer, 1609 (written by Parsons for Humphrey Leach, under whose name it passes). 30. 'A quiet and sober reckoning with M. Thomas Morton, somewhat set in choler by his advesary P. R.. . . There is also adioyned a peece of reckoning with Syr Edward Cooke, now LL. Chief Justice,' 1609. 31. 'A Discussion of the answer of M. William Barlow, Doctor of Diuinity, to the book intituled, The Judgment of a Catholic Englishman, St. Omers,' 1612 (published after Parsons's death, with a supplement by T. Fitzherbert). 32. 'Epitome controversiarum hujus temporis.' Manuscript preserved in Balliol College (Coxe's MSS. Oxon., Balliol, No. 314).

'Leicester's Commonwealth,' 1584, called by contemporaries 'Father Parsons's greencoat.' was not written by him; and 'A Declaration of the true causes of the great troubles presupposed to be intended against the realme of England,' 1592, is very doubtfully attributed to him.

[There exists no adequate biography of Parsons. The Jesuit authorities for the leading facts of his life, excepting those of his political career, are Henry More's Historia Provinciæ Anglicanæ Soc. Jesu (St. Omer, 1660), and Bartoli's Dell'Istoria della Compagnia: L'Inghilterra. Both had access to materials not now accessible. For short biographical notices. Wood's Athenæ, ii. 63-79, where there is a good bibliographical history of the Book of Succession; Dodd's Church History, ii. 402; Charles Butler's Hist. Memoirs, i. 331; Oliver's Biography S. J. p. 157; and Foley's Records, vii. 571. James's Jesuits Downefall, with the Life of Father Parsons (Oxford, 1612), is a worthless compilation of scurrilous passages from the writings of Watson, Bell, Bagshaw, and others. The fullest account of Parsons's missionary life in England will be found in Simpson's Campion. His political dealings from 1581 to 1588 are newly illustrated from original documents in the Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen, edited by Fathers of the London Oratory, with an Introduction by F. Knox. An Historical Sketch of the conflicts between Jesuits and Seculars in the reign of Elizabeth, with a reprint of Christopher Bagshaw's True Relation, by T. G. Law, tells the story of Parsons's relations with the archpriest and the appellant clergy, with the aid of fresh information drawn from the Petyt MSS. of the Inner Temple. See also for the whole period Tierney's Dodd, vols, iii.-v.; Butler's Memoirs, i. ii.; Flanigan's Church History, ii. 198-304; Berington's Memoirs of Panzani; Plowden's Remarks on the Memoirs; and A Modest Defense of the Clergy (by Father Hunter, S.J.), 1714. There are abundant inedited materials in the Record Office and other public archives, and especially at Stonyhurst College, where, besides a mass of correspondence, there are some autobiographical fragments and narratives by Parsons, such as Historia earum rerum quas Anglicana causa Catholica ejusque defensores fecerunt, &c.; Story of domesticall difficulties; Autobiographical Notes, begun in 1601; Punti della missione d'Inghilterra, written in 1605. For the bibliography. De Backer's Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Comp. de Jésus, iii. 564; Sommervogel, Dict. des ouvrages anonym, et pseudonymes, &c.]  PARSONS, ROBERT (1647–1714), archdeacon of Gloucester, son of John Parsons of Southampton, was born in 1647. He matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 10 Dec. 1663, graduated B.A. on 27 June 1667, and M.A. on 22 April 1670. He then became chaplain to Anne, dowager countess of Rochester (daughter of Sir John St. John of Liddiard Tregooze in Wiltshire, widow both of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, and of Henry Wilmot, first earl of Rochester), and he acted as curate of Adderbury in Oxfordshire for William Beaw (afterwards bishop of Llandaff). He was instituted