The Makerfield Rambler
“Edmundus ex nostra Societate, Sacerdos”
The author of the 1631 manuscript account of Edmund Arrowsmith's life, of which a transcript survives at Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives ref. R941 P.142, says that his subject “laboured divers years as one intending on fit occasion to become a Jesuit” but did not in practice do so until “some few years before his execution”. Thereafter he continued “in labour amongst us, except for some ten or twelve days once a year [when he withdrew] for a spiritual recollection at a place where the Jesuits used to meet in Lancashire for that end.” According to the manuscript “Vita et martyrium R.D.D. Edmundi Arrowsmith”, also in the Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, “He laboured about ten or eleven years upon the mission as a secular priest, and then in 1624 entered the Society of Jesus, to which he had always an inclination after making the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius under the direction of a Jesuit Father. He did not go abroad to make his noviceship, but retired only for two or three months into Essex, which time he employed in a spiritual retreat”.
The Society of Jesus divided what it termed the English Province into several “Colleges”, each with its own residence or safe-house in which members were able to gather in relative security for the purposes of spiritual retreat and renewal of their vows. In 1628 the College of Blessed Aloysius -which, from 1624, covered Cheshire and Westmorland as well as Staffordshire and Lancashire- had 19 members, of whom 16 were priests. Of these latter, one taught grammar whilst the remainder travelled about the countryside as missioners. The “place where the Jesuits used to meet in Lancashire” during the time of Edmund Arrowsmith is uncertain. It may have been the now-demolished Blue Anchor Inn at Brindle. This, apparently, served as the base of his operations in the area, and concealed a hiding-place entered via a bedroom at the south end of the building.
Edmund Arrowsmith's membership of the Society of Jesus had been doubted by the church historian Charles Dodd,** but it can be confirmed and, indeed, dated with a high degree of certainty from documents seized by agents of the Crown when the Society's novitiate at Clerkenwell was raided on 14 March 1628.*** He occurs as “P Edmundus Bradshawus” -a known pseudonym- under the heading “Novitii” in 1624, under “Novitii Sacerdotes” in 1625 and, again, under “Collegium B Aloysii cum Missionibus Staffordiensi et Lancastriensi” in 1626.
*The earliest documented reference to a Jesuit residence in Lancashire is from 1636 when, according to annual letters at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), ref. Angl 33I, the fathers at last identified a convenient and well-situated house.
**“The Church History of England...”, Vol III (Brussels, 1742).
***National Archives ref. SP 16/99/1. A commentary on the Clerkenwell seizures by the King's Secretary Sir John Cooke includes, in a list of Lancashire men said to be in the employ if the Catholic Bishop of Chalcedon, Dr Richard Smith, one ““Southwerck alias Bradshaw in the same shire” - which Henry Foley, in Vol I of his “Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus” (Burns & Oates, 1877), takes to be a further reference to Edmund Arrowsmith. For transcripts and an account of the raid, see the Camden Society's “Miscellany” Vols II (1852) and IV (1859). There are corresponding lists of “Personarum Societatis Jesu in Provincia Angliae” at the ARSI, ref. Angl 10 fols 33r-38 v (item 418), 47r-52r (item 425) and 60r-65r (item 418).
Shown above is yet another 17th century account of the life and martyrdom of Edmund Arrowsmith, this by the Jesuit historian Henry More from his “Historia Missionis Anglicanæ Societatis Iesu” (St Omer's College/Thomas Geubels, 1660). Henry More SJ (1588-1661) was a great-grandson of the martyred Lord High Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), and served as “Provincial” in England between 1636 and 1639. He refers to Arrowsmith as “Edmundus ex nostra Societate Sacerdos” - “Edmund, Priest of our Society”.
“Edmundus ex nostra Societate, Sacerdos”
The author of the 1631 manuscript account of Edmund Arrowsmith's life, of which a transcript survives at Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives ref. R941 P.142, says that his subject “laboured divers years as one intending on fit occasion to become a Jesuit” but did not in practice do so until “some few years before his execution”. Thereafter he continued “in labour amongst us, except for some ten or twelve days once a year [when he withdrew] for a spiritual recollection at a place where the Jesuits used to meet in Lancashire for that end.” According to the manuscript “Vita et martyrium R.D.D. Edmundi Arrowsmith”, also in the Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, “He laboured about ten or eleven years upon the mission as a secular priest, and then in 1624 entered the Society of Jesus, to which he had always an inclination after making the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius under the direction of a Jesuit Father. He did not go abroad to make his noviceship, but retired only for two or three months into Essex, which time he employed in a spiritual retreat”.
The Society of Jesus divided what it termed the English Province into several “Colleges”, each with its own residence or safe-house in which members were able to gather in relative security for the purposes of spiritual retreat and renewal of their vows. In 1628 the College of Blessed Aloysius -which, from 1624, covered Cheshire and Westmorland as well as Staffordshire and Lancashire- had 19 members, of whom 16 were priests. Of these latter, one taught grammar whilst the remainder travelled about the countryside as missioners. The “place where the Jesuits used to meet in Lancashire” during the time of Edmund Arrowsmith is uncertain. It may have been the now-demolished Blue Anchor Inn at Brindle. This, apparently, served as the base of his operations in the area, and concealed a hiding-place entered via a bedroom at the south end of the building.
Edmund Arrowsmith's membership of the Society of Jesus had been doubted by the church historian Charles Dodd,** but it can be confirmed and, indeed, dated with a high degree of certainty from documents seized by agents of the Crown when the Society's novitiate at Clerkenwell was raided on 14 March 1628.*** He occurs as “P Edmundus Bradshawus” -a known pseudonym- under the heading “Novitii” in 1624, under “Novitii Sacerdotes” in 1625 and, again, under “Collegium B Aloysii cum Missionibus Staffordiensi et Lancastriensi” in 1626.
*The earliest documented reference to a Jesuit residence in Lancashire is from 1636 when, according to annual letters at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), ref. Angl 33I, the fathers at last identified a convenient and well-situated house.
**“The Church History of England...”, Vol III (Brussels, 1742).
***National Archives ref. SP 16/99/1. A commentary on the Clerkenwell seizures by the King's Secretary Sir John Cooke includes, in a list of Lancashire men said to be in the employ if the Catholic Bishop of Chalcedon, Dr Richard Smith, one ““Southwerck alias Bradshaw in the same shire” - which Henry Foley, in Vol I of his “Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus” (Burns & Oates, 1877), takes to be a further reference to Edmund Arrowsmith. For transcripts and an account of the raid, see the Camden Society's “Miscellany” Vols II (1852) and IV (1859). There are corresponding lists of “Personarum Societatis Jesu in Provincia Angliae” at the ARSI, ref. Angl 10 fols 33r-38 v (item 418), 47r-52r (item 425) and 60r-65r (item 418).
Shown above is yet another 17th century account of the life and martyrdom of Edmund Arrowsmith, this by the Jesuit historian Henry More from his “Historia Missionis Anglicanæ Societatis Iesu” (St Omer's College/Thomas Geubels, 1660). Henry More SJ (1588-1661) was a great-grandson of the martyred Lord High Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), and served as “Provincial” in England between 1636 and 1639. He refers to Arrowsmith as “Edmundus ex nostra Societate Sacerdos” - “Edmund, Priest of our Society”.