Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/110

 86

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ 12 s.vi. APRIL 3. 19-20.

HUGH GRIFFIN, PROVOST OF GAMBRAI.

HUGH GRIFFIN, or Griffith, Provost of Oambrai, born about 1556, was a nephew -of Owen Lewis (as to whom see the ' D.N.B.' .-and 12 S. i. 366). He entered the English College at Douai at some date unknown, and left for England Oct. 6, 1576, danger then .threatening the College owing to the revo- lutionary spirit abroad. He returned Mar. 10, 1577, but left again Aug. 7, 1577,
 * as once more danger threatened (Knox,

' Douay Diaries,' pp. Ill, 116, 127). When the College had removed to Rheims he rejoined it April 8, 1578, and after a visit to Cambrai, doubtless to see his uncle, he returned to Rheims Aug. 17, 1578 (ibid.,
 * P p. 138, 143).

Soon afterwards he appears to have removed to the English College at Rome of which his fellow-countryman, Dr. Maurice i-Clenock, was then rector.

On Mar. 30, 1579, Fr. Robert Persons, wards Cardinal, concerning the College at Rome wrote :
 * .S.J., in a letter to Dr. William Allen, after-

" When all the English put out of the College,

one Hugh Griffin, Xephew to Mr. Archdeacon

Lewis., is said to have given a leape into the

Colledge Hall sayinge Whoe note but a Welchman.

which when it came to the others eares you may

'thinke how it sett them on, though little heed is

'to be given to his wordes or deeds, being very free

?an both ; for since that tyme, when one night he

came very late home, the gates being shutt, and I,

having charge of the Colledg, sent to know the

.cause of his being forth so late, he said I was a

K f? knave] and with that answered all." (See

>Cath. Eec. Soc., ii. 136.)

On the following April 23 Father Alfonso Agazzari, S.J., became Rector of the College, rStudent of logic, took the oath which was tendered to all the collegians (C.R.S., ii. 134). In 1.581 one Richard Atkins of Hertford- shire was delated to the Inquisition by Hugh Griffin, and was eventually burnt. At this time Griffith was still a student at the English College, Rome (Strype, ' Ann III.,' i. 55 ; ii. 187-8).
 * and Hugh Griffin, being then aged 23 and a

Fr. Persons mentions (C.R.S., ii. 88) the expulsion of Griffin from the College "by -expresse commandment of Cardinal Morone at the suit of F. Alfonso Agazzarius," and says that he afterwards became Provost of dambrai by the resignation of his uncle.

Cardinal Morone died in 1581, so we must v -presume that Griffin was expelled that year. Under the year 1584 Fr. Persons writes <(C.R.S., ii. 34) that Lewis,

" being retynd to Milan to serve Cardl. Boromeo for Vicar General has left his nephew Hugh Griphet in Borne, a man of turbulent spirit, and hath procured him some favour of Card. Savelli, Chief Inquisitor." (C.R.S., ii. 34.)

but I believe this date should be 1580. That would account for Griffin being able in 1581 to have Atkins imprisoned by the Inquisition. St. Charles Borromeo died in 1584. Lewis was in Milan Mar. 21, 1582 (see Knox, op. cit., p. 343).

In Knox's ' Letters and Memorials of. Cardinal Allen ' there are letters from Griffin to Allen himself and to Dr. Richard Bristow attacking the Jesuits ; and in a letter to Lewis written from Paris May 12, 1579, Allen begs Lewis to moderate Griffin's behaviour, " who is of a bitter, odd and incompatible nature. . . .who for choler and other singularities was insupportable among his fellows here."

In 1596 there occured another outbreak in the English College at Rome, for which, according to the Jesuits, the Provost of Cambrai, who was then at Rome, was largely responsible (cf. Knox, ' Douay Diaries,' p. 394).

On Sept. 25, 1596, Agazzari wrote from Rome to Persons at Madrid (Knox, ' Douay Diaries,' pp. 388-9) :

" Hugo Griffidio avanti la sua partita ha voluto fare un bel colpo. Invito 1'altro giorno il signer Baretto [i.e., Richard Barret, as to whom see ' D.N.B.'] a pranso, et dipoi lo retiro in camera, et gli diede un assalto cosi impetuoso et terribile che Baretto retorn6 a casa raUco et quasi ammalato . . . . Spero con* la gratia del Signore .che, partito che sia Hugone, non ci restera persona fuora del collegio che favorisca i tristi .... Raccomando anco a V. R. il sig re Heschetto .... Doppo la partita di Griffidio quasi tutti gl' Inglesi fuora del collegio dependeranno da lui."

Who was this Hesketh ?

Further references to Griffin are to be found in T. G. Law's ' Jesuits and Seculars under Elizabeth,' at pp. 97, 113, and in vol. vi. of Foley's ' Records of the English Province S.J.'

T. G. Law, in ' The Archpriest Contro- versy,' vol. i., p. 10, refers to a letter, dated April 26, 1597, containing a violent diatribe against the Jesuits written by Griffin to a Welsh student at the College named Edward Bennett.

On May 15, 1597, articles for the regulation of the College " agreed iipon by Fr. Persons, &c., and confirmed by Cardinal Borghese," Vice-Protector of the College (in the absence of the Protector Cardinal Cajetan), were sent " A monsieur le provoste de notre dame de Cambraye " (see Law, ' Archpriest Contro- versy,' pp. 16-17).