Biography

He was the great-grandson of the martyred English chancellor Thomas More

Thomas More

Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...

.
Henry was born in 1586; died at Watten

Watten, Nord

-Sights:The village is famous for its old ruined abbey, and for its mill, which was restored in the 1990s. These two buildings are located on the "Mountain of Watten" . Its church dates from the thirteenth century.-References:* *...

 in 1661. Having studied at St. Omer and Valladolid

Valladolid

Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

, he entered the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

, and after his profession and fulfilling various subordinate posts in the colleges, he was sent on the English Mission where he was twice arrested and imprisoned (1632, 1640), while acting as chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 to John Petre, 1st Baron Petre

John Petre, 1st Baron Petre

John Petre, 1st Baron Petre was an English peer.-Biography:John was the only surviving son of the statesman Sir William Petre by his second wife Anne, daughter of William Browne...

.

He became provincial superior

Provincial superior

A Provincial Superior is a major superior of a religious order acting under the order's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that order in a territorial division of the order called a province--similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical...

 in 1635, and in that capacity had a good deal to do with the negotiations of Gregorio Panzani

Gregorio Panzani

Gregorio Panzani was an Italian Catholic priest, who became Bishop of Mileto and a papal emissary to England during the reign of King Charles I of England....

, George Conn

George Conn

George Conn was an American soccer player who spent twelve seasons with the Kearny Scots in the American Soccer League. During those twelve seasons, the Scots won five league titles . In 1939, he was part of an ASL All Star team which played the Scottish national team during its tour of North...

 and Rossetti, the papal agents at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria. He was rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

of St. Omer from 1649 to 1652, and again 1657 to 1660.

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).

Source