Father Henry More (1586–1661) was an English

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provincial and church historian.

Biography

He was son of Edward More, and great-grandson of Sir

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

, lord chancellor of England. He must not be confused with his cousin, Henry More (born 1567), who was son of Thomas More and Mary Scrope. More was born in 1586 in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, according to the majority of the provincial catalogues, though a few of them give Cambridgeshire as the county of his birth. He made his humanity studies in the college of the English Jesuits at St. Omer, and entered the novitiate of St. John's, Louvain, 19 November 1607. His higher studies were probably made in Spain. In 1614, he filled the office of minister in the English college of St. Alban at Valladolid ; he held the same office in the college at St. Omer in 1621 ; and he was professed of the four vows 12 May 1622. From 1622 until 1632, he was a missioner in the London district, and he was one of the Jesuits arrested at the

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

residence, by the officers of the privy council in March 1628. In 1632, he was in confinement in the

New Prison The New Prison was a prison located in the Clerkenwell area of central London between c.1617 and 1877. The New Prison was used to house prisoners committed for examination before the police magistrates, for trial at the sessions, for want of bail ...

, London, and was released in December 1633. He then became chaplain to Lord Petre at Ingatestone and Thorndon Hall, Essex. In 1635, he was declared provincial superior of his order. Again imprisoned, he was set free in July 1640. In 1642, he was vice-provincial of the order, residing in London, and acting for Father

Matthew Wilson Matthew Wilson (born 29 January 1987) is a British rally driver from Cockermouth in Cumbria. He is the son of M-Sport boss and former World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson. Wilson competed in the WRC for the Stobart M-Sport Ford team ...

, alias Edward Knott, the provincial, who was absent in Belgium. In 1645, he was

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the college of St. Ignatius, which comprised the London district. He became rector of the college at St. Omer, and in 1655 he was again residing in Essex. In 1657, he was for the second time rector of the college at St. Omer, and he died at

Watten Watten may refer to: Places * Watten, Nord, a commune in the Nord ''département'' of France ** ''Blockhaus d'Éperlecques'' or Watten bunker, intended to be a launching facility for the V-2 ballistic missile * Watten, Highland, a village in Cai ...

, near that city, on 8 December 1661.

Works

During these latter years he wrote his important history of the English Jesuits: ''Historia Missionis Anglicanæ, ab anno MDLXXX ad MDCXXXV'' (St. Omer, 1660, fol.). Besides translating Jerome Platus's ''Happiness of the Religious State'' (1632), and the ''Manual of Meditations'' by Thomas de Villa Castin (1618), he wrote ''Vita et Doctrina Christi Domini in meditationes quotidianas per annum digesta'' (Antwerp, 1649), followed by an English version, entitled, ''Life and Doctrines of our Saviour Jesus Christ'' (Ghent, 1656, in two parts; London, 1880).

References

;Attribution

Sources

* 1586 births 1661 deaths 17th-century English Jesuits Historians of Jesuit history Recusants {{England-reli-bio-stub