John Betham (1642?–1709) was an English Catholic priest and tutor to

James Francis Edward Stuart James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from ...

(son of

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Gloriou ...

and later called the Old Pretender).

Life

He was a native of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, where his elder brother owned an estate. He completed his studies at Douai, and was ordained priest there. He went to Paris in 1667, resuming his studies, and after ten years was created a doctor of the Sorbonne. Then he came to England on the English Mission, but the excitement caused by Titus Oates's narrative of the

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...

meant he returned to France. Betham then revived an old project for erecting a seminary for the benefit of such of the English clergy taking degrees in the university of Paris.

Arras College Arras College was a Catholic foundation in Paris, a house of higher studies associated with the University of Paris, set up in 1611. It was intended for English priests, and had a function as a House of Writers, or apologetical college. This aspect ...

at Paris had been founded as early as 1611 for the maintenance of learned writers in defence of Catholicism. In 1667, this institution was expanded by Thomas Carre ( Miles Pinkney); but the scheme was not completed until many years later, when Betham was appointed to preside over the seminary. He was appointed one of the chaplains and preachers in ordinary to King James II. A sermon he preached before the king and queen in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace on the

Feast of the Annunciation The Feast of the Annunciation, in Greek, Ο Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου, contemporarily the Solemnity of the Annunciation, and also called Lady Day, the Feast of the Incarnation ('), or Conceptio Christi ('), commemorates the ...

, 1686, was printed by royal order. He remained in office until the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

, and soon afterwards he followed James to St Germain. He was appointed preceptor to the Chevalier de Saint George, and after King James's death that office was confirmed to him by commission, dated 30 October 1701. Betham was a sympathizer with

Jansenism Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by t ...

, and

Mary of Modena Mary of Modena ( it, Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; ) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the young ...

objected to his views. Broad as Betham may have been in theology, his curriculum for the young Chevalier has been seen as narrow.John Callow, ''King in Exile'' (2004), pp. 211-212. Betham was able to purchase a house and garden in the Rue des Postes, Faubourg Saint Marceau, and open St Gregory's seminary by letters patent from the king of France in 1701. Some years before his death he retired there, where he ended his days in 1709.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Betham, John 1642 births 1709 deaths University of Paris alumni 17th-century English Roman Catholic priests Expatriates of the Kingdom of England in France People from Warwickshire