Thomas Bell

Background

He was born at Raskelf, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, in 1551, and is said to have been beneficed as a clergyman in Lancashire.

Career

Subsequently he became a Roman Catholic, and was imprisoned at York, around 1573. In 1576 he went to Douay College, and in 1579, when twenty-eight, entered the English College, Rome as a student of philosophy. In 1581, by then a priest, he was in the English seminary at Rome, and in the following March (1582) was sent into England.

He was mentioned in 1592 as one ill-affected to the government, and he shared the fate of other seminary priests in being arrested.

He was sent to London. But he recanted, and was sent back to Lancashire to help look for Jesuits.

After this he went to Cambridge, where he began the publication of his controversial writings.

Connections

associate:

Thomas Worthington