Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART I THE FOUNDATION OF THE ENGLISH MISSION (1615-1660) CHAPTER I Father Simon Stock Of St. Mary (thomas Doughty) Birth of the missioner—His own account of his youth and education—Becomes a Discalced Carmelite—His zeal for the conversion of England—State of the country on his arrival here, A.d. 1615—Father Simon Stock's relations with the family of the Blessed Sir Thomas More—His struggles and trials and holy death. The first of our missionaries was Thomas Doughty, of Plombley, co. Lincoln, born about the year 1574, whether of Protestant or Catholic parents it is difficult to say. Some writers speak of him as a convert, but he himself affords no grounds for such an assumption in the short narrative of his career, which he wrote in Italian at the express wish of his Superiors, when he was already advanced in years. From the fact of his having taken the name of Simon Stock of St. Mary in religion, we might infer that it was his holy ambition to restore the ancient glory of the Carmelite Order in that country where it had received its most signal favour from Carmel's heavenly Queen : the Brown Scapular, with the extraordinary promises attached to the wearing of it. Alluding to his earlier years, Father Simon relates:— " My parents, whose tenth child I was, dedicatedme in my infancy to Almighty God and His Church, and with hopeful desires they took great care that I should apply myself to study. After their death I was sent to school to a place where the ruins of many monasteries still remained, and, notwithstanding my tender age, Our Lord made me feel great pain at the destruction of so many Religious houses, and the ruin of religion itself. Wherefore, by the grace of Our Lord I made a vow of chastity, and resolved to further the interest of Holy Church in England... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.