This item - Memorial for the Reformation of England - is a 17th century English manuscript and is a copy of recusant tract pleading the English to return to Catholicism. The original was the work of Father Robert Persons in 1596.
It measures 185mm by 150mm., has 80 leaves, and is in modern marbled boards with red cloth spine.
It was formerly part of Bergendal Collection (MS.82) which had been owned by Joseph Pope (1921-2010).
Robert Persons, also known as Robert Parsons, was born on 24 June 1546 at Nether Stowey, Somerset. He studied at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, in 1562, and on completion of these he became a fellow and tutor at Balliol College in 1568. However, because of his strong Catholic leanings, he was forced to resign in 1574.
Persons left England in 1575 and entered the Jesuit Order in Rome returning with Edmund Campion (1540-1581) in 1580. He narrowly escaped again after Campion's arrest and martyrdom. In 1596, in Seville, he wrote Memorial for the Reformation of England, which provided insight into the kind of society England was to become after its return to the Catholic faith.
Father Robert Persons died in Rome on 15 April 1610.
Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.
Material acquired through purchase. Accession no: E2011.30/1.
Compiled by Graeme D. Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections.
