St ROBERT SOUTHWELL SJ, 1595

WILLING SACRIFICES

He thus describes the condition of his fellow Catholics, priests and laity : “ As yet we are alive and well, being unworthy, it seems, of prisons. We have oftener sent than received letters from your parts, though they are not sent without difficulty, and some we know have been lost. The condition of Catholic recusants here is the same as usual, deplorable and full of fears and dangers, more especially since our adversaries have looked for wars. As many of ours as are in chains rejoice and are comforted in their prisons; and they that are at liberty set not their hearts upon it nor expect it to be of long continuance. All, by the great goodness and mercy of God, arm themselves to sufifer anything that can come, how hard soever it may be* as it shall please our Lord, for whose greater glory and the Salvation of their souls they are more concerned than for any temporal losses. A little while ago they apprehended two priests, who have suffered such cruel usages in the prison of Bridewell as can scarce be believed. What was given them to eat was so little in quantity, and withal most filthy and nauseous.”

“Then said I, Behold I come to do Thy will, O my God.”—Ps. xxxix. 7, 9.

+ Venerable PHILIP HOWARD, Layman, 1595

FROM PRISON TO PARADISE

Biography

AFTER his condemnation he rose at 5 A.M., and spent four or five hours every morning and three or four in the afternoon in prayer, so that his knees grew very hard and black. He fasted thrice a week, and on the Vigils of the great Feasts he had neither meat nor drink. In his spare time, besides a little physical exercise, he used his remarkable intellectual gifts in translating spiritual works. To the poor he gave much of his scanty allowance, and he intended, if ever it were possible, to restore all Church lands in his possession, to make his two houses monasteries, and himself to enter religion. Through his rigid confinement his body wasted while his soul waxed strong, till one day, at dinner, he was seized with a dysentery, which consumed him to skin and bone. The Queen refused his petition for a priest or for his wife and children to visit him, though this latter she had promised, but she sent word that, if he would go to church once, all would be granted, his honour and estates restored, and the fulness of her favour. He refused her offer, and after eleven years' imprisonment gave back his soul to God. He inscribed on his cell, " The more of suffering for Christ in this life, the more of glory with Christ in the next."

" The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come."—ROM. viii. 18.