Christopher Bagshaw
| Christopher Bagshaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1552 Derbyshire, United Kingdom |
| Died | c. 1625 Paris, France |
| Burial place | Paris, France |
Christopher Bagshaw (1552 – 1625?) was an English academic and Roman Catholic priest.[1]
Life
Christopher Bagshaw came from a Derbyshire family. He graduated B.A. on 12 July 1572, at Balliol College, Oxford and, in the same year, was elected probationer fellow of his college. Before going to Oxford, he matriculated in 1566 at St John's College, Cambridge.[2] According to Anthony à Wood, he owed his fellowship to the influence of Robert Parsons, but Wood's editor, Philip Bliss, contradicts him;[3] connecting Bagshaw with the expulsion of Parsons from the college. On 21 June 1575, Bagshaw took the degree of M.A. At this time, he was a strong if quarrelsome Protestant.
About 1579, Bagshaw became Principal of Gloucester Hall, where he made himself very unpopular. He resigned this office and, in 1582, went to France. Here, he became a convert to Catholicism and was made a priest. Then, with the permission of Cardinal William Allen, he was admitted to the English College, Rome; but his temper made him so unpopular that he was expelled by Cardinal Boncompagni. On leaving Rome, he returned to Paris, where he became a doctor of divinity at the Sorbonne. Jesuit writers styled him derisively doctor erraticus and doctor per saltum.
Christopher Bagshaw went to England as a missioner and, in 1587, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1593, he was confined with other Catholics in Wisbech Castle. He clashed with Father William Weston, who found him disobedient, setting off the "Wisbech Stirs". When examined at the Tower for treasonable practices, Edward Squire, an emissary from some English priests in Spain, affirmed that he had come with a letter (which he threw into the sea off Plymouth) from Father Henry Walpole to Bagshaw at Wisbech. After his liberation, Bagshaw continued to reside abroad.
In 1612, he held a disputation with Daniel Featley concerning transubstantiation.[4] Wood says that Bagshaw died and was buried at Paris after 1625, citing Franciscus à Santa Clara.
Works
Christopher Bagshaw published, at Paris in 1603, 'An Answer to certain points of a Libel called An Apology of the Subordination in England,' 8vo. He is also thought to have been concerned in
- 'Relatio compendiosa Turbarum quas Jesuitæ Angli una cum D. Georgio Blackwello, Archipresbytero, Sacerdotibus Seminariorum Populoque Catholico concivere,' &c., Rothomagi, 1601, (published under the name of John Mush);
- 'A true Relation of the Faction begun at Wisbich by Father Emonds, alias Weston, a Jesuit, 1595, and continued since by Father Walley, alias Garnet, the Provincial of the Jesuits in England, and by Father Parsons in Rome,' 1601.
Notes
- Attribution
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Christopher Bagshaw — Convert, priest, prisoner for the Faith, and a prominent figure in the controversies between Catholic priests and the reign of Elizabeth. He came of a Derbyshire family, but the year of his birth is unknown. Hi died in Paris sometime after 1625. Bagshaw was at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1566, was graduated B.A. at Balliol, Oxford, 1572, and probably became a Fellow of that college in the same year. As a Fellow he was a party to the expulsion from the college of the afterwards famous Jesuit, Father Parsons.
At proceeding M. A. in 1575, Bagshaw was still a zealous Protestant. His administration as Principal of Gloucester Hall (1579) was unpopular and brief. In 1582, in France, he became a Catholic and was ordained a priest. Going to Rome with the permission of Cardinal Allen, he entered the English College. It is said by Bullen, that he was expelled by Cardinal Boncompagni for his quarrelsome temper and unpopularity. Foley's list of students of the English College does not contain his name. Later, at Paris he proceeded doctor of divinity and doctor of the Sorbonne, though afterwards he was dubbed by his Jesuit opponents doctor erraticus, doctor per saltum. On his return to England he was imprisoned (1587) in the Tower of London, under the statute of 27th of Elizabeth, an act against Jesuits and Seminarists. (The text of this law is in Hardy and Gee.) With a number of other priests out of the more than 400 labouring in England, he was imprisoned in Wisbeach Castle, 1593.
There now came to a head a factional division among the labourers on the English mission. There were two original sources of difference: the existence of a Spanish faction, headed by the Jesuits, and the Jesuits' control of the English College at Rome (Cf. Dodd and Tierney; Lingard). The partisan feelings aroused found vent in two controversies in which Bagshaw was prominent, if not first, on the side opposed to the Jesuits and their friends. The earlier dispute, arbitrated after nine months, arose from the vigorous opposition of Bagshaw and the elder clergy to the introduction of a religious rule among the thirty-three priests in Wisbeach Castle. Later, when, partly for the purpose of consolidating English Catholic sentiment in favour of a Catholic successor to Elizabeth, Cardinal Cajetan placed at the head of the English Mission, as archpriest, Father George Blackwell, with instructions to consult the Jesuit provincial on matters of importance (Lingard VIII, vii), Bagshaw headed a party of protest, which, on being disciplined, appealed, with the secret aid of Elizabeth's government, to Rome. Their appeal was in part successful, though the appointment was confirmed.
Bagshaw, after his liberation, resided abroad, and is described in Daniel Featley's "Transubstantiation Exploded" as having been Rector of Ave Maria College. This work was published in 1638, and contained notes of a public disputation with Bagshaw. His death and burial, at Paris, occurred after 1625. He may have written in part "A true Relation of the Faction begun at Wisbich by Father Edmonds, alias Weston, a Jesuit, 1595, and continued since by Father Walley, alias Garnet, the Provincial of the Jesuits in England, and by Father Parsons in Rome" (1601); "Relatio Compendiosa Turbarum quas Jesuitæ Angli uná cum D. Georgio Blackwello, Archipresbytero, Sacerdotibus Seminariorum, Populoque Catholico concivere", etc. (Rouen, 1601).
BULLEN in Dict. of Nat. Biog., II, 400; GILLOW, Bibi. Dict. Eng. Cath., I, 100; LINGARD, History at England; FOLEY, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, I, 42, 481; II, 239, 244; VI, 724, 725; DODD, ed. TIERNEY, Church History of England, III, 40 and appendix.
References
- Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Christopher Bagshaw". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Back to citation "Bagshaw, Christopher (BGSW566C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- Back to citation Bliss printed in the footnotes to the life of Parsons (Athen. Oxon. ii. 657) a letter of Archbishop George Abbot to Dr. Hussye, from which it appears that Bagshaw 'coming to be fellow was most hot in prosecution against Parson.'
- Back to citation Notes of this disputation were printed many years afterwards in Transubstantiation exploded, or an Encounter with Richard, the titularie Bishop of Chalcedon.... By Daniel Featley, D.D. Whereunto is annexed a publique and solemne disputation held at Paris with Christopher Bagshawe, D. in Theologie and Rector of Avie Marie College, 1638.
Bibliography
- Holmes, Peter. "Bagshaw, Christopher (1552–1625?)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1042. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.). The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: Bullen, Arthur Henry (1885). "Bagshaw, Christopher". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 400-1.