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MARTYRS DYING IN PRISION
FATHER EDWARD MICO, alias HERVEY AND BAINES - The author of
the Brevis Relatio commences his
notice of this Father by giving a concise account of the origin and progress of
the Oates' Plot. He justly terms it a
judicial and public persecution against Catholics, but especially against the
Society of Jesus, in which not Father Hervey alone, but several of his brothers
in religion, with multitudes of the more fervent
Page 248 The
College of St. Ignatius,
Catholics
and divers religious, were cruelly made victims to its fury, sonic in their
lives, others in their fortunes. 11 The origin of which indeed, and the
pretexts adduced for the slaughter of so many most innocent men, are so
portentous, incredible, and even grotesque, that had they not been published
abroad by written documents, I could never have expected to gain credit with my
readers in asserting them. For how
could any sensible person be persuaded that men in other respects wise,
prudent, and endowed with every gift for forming t sound and legal judgment of
matters (such as for the most part are all the English judges and members of
Parliament), could have been brought to believe as true the charges alleged
against the Jesuits, and find in them sufficient cause for capital punishment,
being all the time so manifestly false and fictitious, as by their very
absurdity to preclude even the appearance of truth ?
Father
Edward Mico, alias Hervey and Baines,
was a native of Essex, born in the year 1630, Of Catholic parents of great
respectability. At an early age he was
sent to the English College at St. Omer, where, during his humanity studies he
was imbued with the principles of piety, and on account of his singular
sweetness and innocence of manners, was loved and venerated by all. On the 27th of October, 1647, be entered the
English College in Rome, under the name of Edward Baines, at the age of
nineteen, and was received as a convictor among the Pope's scholars. He took the College oath on the 21st of May,
1648, and received the first minor orders on the 21st of June of that year, and
left the College for Watten on the 28th of March, 1650, and was there admitted
to the Society (Diary of the College). On entering the College, he made the
following brief statement: -
“1647. My name is Edward Mico. I am nearly nineteen years of age. My parents are Catholic and of the upper
class of society. I have one sister,
but no brother. I studied my humanities
at St. Omer's College, and was always a Catholic."
He
was most exact in the observance of all the rules and discipline of the
College, more like a novice of the Society, which he was commonly styled. He was remarkable for a most tender devotion
to the Blessed Mother of God, whose honour he ever most zealously strove to
increase among his fellow-students. He
had a special hatred of every kind of disunion and contention, so that when any
matter of dispute
Page 249 or the London District.
or difference of
opinion arose, he would always prefer to yield to others rather than strive for
the victory. After spending two years in philosophy in this rare innocency of
manners, he petitioned the Father General for leave to enter the Society, which
he readily obtained, and, breaking off his course of philosophy, he left the
English College on the 28th of March, 1650, and was admitted to the novitiate
of the English Province at Watten on the 15th of June following, in the
twenty-first year of his age. Having completed his two years' probation, and
been admitted to his first vows, he was sent to the English theologate at
Liege, where he resumed and completed his course of philosophy, and also
studied his theology. Having made his
tertianship, or third year's probation, he was employed as a master for some years
at St. Omer's College, and then sent to work in the English vineyard. Here he diligently laboured for some years,
being inflamed with an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls. He was solemnly professed on the 2nd of
February, 1666. We have no exact
information regarding his success on the mission, how many he brought from
heresy to the bosom of the Church, and how many waverers he strengthened. He was not inferior to the rest of his
fellow-labourers; but so severe (adds the author) is the violence of the
persecution at this time, that no means of communicating with those in England
who had daily intercourse with Father Mico, are permitted us. His zeal on the mission, his singular
prudence and meekness, and his talents for business, obtained for him the
office of Socius to three Provincials of the English Province in
succession-Fathers George Gray, Richard Strange, and Thomas Whitbread. This office he fulfilled for eight years
with great satisfaction to his Superiors.
In the narrative of Father Peter Hamerton (a portion of which is
inserted in page 20 Of the general history of the Plot) we have seen that the
Father had scarcely returned with the Provincial, Fattier Whitbread, to
England, from the usual visitation of the English (Colleges in Belgium, than he
was confined to his bed with a severe attack of fever, his life being more than
once despaired of by the physicians; that Oates, accompanied by a body of
soldiers, rushed into his room in the middle of the night, and would have
dragged him from his bed, ill as be was, had not the Spanish Ambassador (whom
he served as chaplain) by his authority and threats restrained their
violence. Nevertheless, Father Mico
suffered much from their brutal violence; his
Page 250 The College of St. Ignatius,
body
was bruised by blows from the butt end of their muskets, his room plundered,
and a guard of soldiers placed at the door day and night. Father Hamerton says: " My employment
for a month or five weeks was to visit our Fathers who lay hid in several
places. The correspondence between Mr.
Whitbread and others passed through my hands.
I visited each one every day, and albeit Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Mico had
a guard of twelve soldiers upon them, I did not omit my ordinary visits;
sometimes dressed like a gentleman, at other times in the habit of an
apothecary's apprentice, with a glass in my hand and an apron before me, in
which garb I entered with much freedom into their rooms. Although the sentry stood at the door, I
often heard their confessions, and spoke as comfortably to them as occasion
would permit, and this I did till they were remanded to Newgate."
Father
Mico, when sufficiently recovered to enable him to be moved, was taken to
Newgate Prison. His constitution,
however, was broken, and he did not long survive the inhuman treatment, from
the effects of which, rather than from the fever, as the medical men deposed,
he calmlv rendered up his happy soul into the hands of his Creator, with
sentiments of the most tender piety, on the 3rd of December, 1678, Act 48; in
religion twenty-six; professed twelve.
Bishop Challoner, in his Memoirs
of Missionary Priests, quotes from a
MS. in his hand: He was found dead on his
knees, oppressed with the weight of
his irons." The hatred of
his persecutors did not stop here: they would not allow his body to be interred
until the surgeon had made a pos mortem examination
to ascertain whether he had not committed suicide by poison!
Dr.
Oliver, in his Collectanea S.J., says
that, with the permission of Father Nathaniel Southwell, Father Mico translated
into English his Latin MS. Meditations,
to which he made considerable additions.
This octavo volume was published in London under the title of Meditatioits for Every Day in the Year, 1669, and has passed through
several subsequent editions.
(Note:
This Book is held in the Rare Book Section of the National Library of
Australia, in Canberra. I have had the
privilege of holding and reading it, in its entirety. Vince)
In
the Stonyhurst Collection of MSS., Anglia,
vol. v. n. 82, there is an original letter from this confessor of the
faith, dated London, September 10th, 1675, addressed:
These for my honoured friend,
Mr. Christopher Grene,
Rome.'
He writes as Socius
to Father Strange the ProvinciaJ, acknowledging his letter of the 27th of July,
which Father Provincial had
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or the London District.
received just upon
his departure from London for hi, circuit into the country, and had not leisure
then to return him an answer, nor is he able to make any resolution concerning
his removal at least as to the execution, till next spring…. In the meantime he
desires you will use the same diligence as if you were to continue in the
office. And thus much he ordered me to
signify unto you in his name. Sir, I am
very glad of this occasion to salute my old friend and schoolfellow, and to
subscribe myself.
Your
humble servant to my power,
EDWARD
MICO, (IliaS BAINFS.33
Footnote 33
33 Father Giles Mico, probably uncle to
the subject of our prcsent notice, was born in Somersetshire in 1595- he
entered the English College Rome as an alumnus, in the namc of Giles Hcrvey,
aged twenty-one, on October 13th, 1616, and took the College oaths May 3rd
1617, and was ordained priest March 25th, 1620. He left Rome for Liege October 12th, in the same year, and was
there admitted to the Society. On
entering the English College he made the following statement: " My name is
Walter Mico. I am twenty-one years of
age, and was born at Taunton in Somersetshire, where I was brought up by my
parents until I was nineteen years of age.
My parents are of the middle class, but not without education; they are
Protestants. I have two brothers: the
one Catholic, the other Lutheran; five sisters, all heretics ; one uncle, a
very learned Protestant and famous preacher ; one relative, formerly a merchant
but now, I understand, a Franciscan. I
studied at Taunton, and for the last two years at St. Omer's. I was a Lutheran until my twentieth year,
when, on the 3rd of May, 1614, moved by the persuasions of my brother, and
after a discussion with the Rev. Father Scott concerning faith, and one
respecting religious, held in the Gatchouse Prison, Westminster, I was convert to the faith by the same Father. After living
there for a little time, I left England for St.Omer's College.'' He signs himself Giles Hervey. The Jesuit Father may have been Thomas
Laithwaite, alias Scott. See his
biography, Records, vol. iv. " St. Stanislaus' Residence.
" Father Giles Mico, as appears
by the Minister's book of the English College in Rome, returned to the Eternal City, September 16th, 1623, having been
appointed Penitentiary at St. Peter's,
which office he filled for many years, as
likewise that of Minister in the English College, of the library of which he
may be styled the founder (Oliver). On the death of Father William Risden,
October 27th, 1644, Father Mico undertook the office of agent in
Rome for the English Province. Father Edward Knott, the Provincial, wrote him
the following note: "Rev. Father in Christ,- Pax Christi,- I have yours of
the 12th of October, and beseech sweet Jesus to reward the pains you are taking
for our Province since Father Risden's death, especially your health being such
as you mention; though withal I shall be willing to hope that stirring may help
to remove your troublesome guest, I mean that catarrh which hath troubled you
so long. In the meantime your merit is
increased by the difficulties you find to travel even on horseback; and a
martydom may be had, though one be far from Tyburn. God be blessed for so plentiful a vintage, and make us very
thankful for that plenty, and for our sufferings and wants in these times. Bonum
Dominum habemus, to Whose holy grace, dear father, I commit you, and bbeg
part in your Holy Sacifices, - EDWARD KNOTT. Ghent, 8th October,
1644.” Father Giles Mico died in Rome,
October 22nd, 1647.