Life

Bavant was a native of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, and received his education at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1552. He was one of the original fellows of St John's College, Oxford

St John's College, Oxford

__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...

 and the first Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 reader there. During his residence at Oxford he was tutor to two noted writers, Edmund Campion

Edmund Campion

Saint Edmund Campion, S.J. was an English Roman Catholic martyr and Jesuit priest. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Protestant England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason by a kangaroo court, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn...

 and Gregory Martin

Gregory Martin (scholar)

Gregory Martin was an English Catholic scholar, the translator of the Douai Version of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate....

.

Leaving England on the change of religion in 1558–9, he pursued his theological studies at Rheims and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, and was created D.D. In 1581 he was sent from Rheims to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and he worked on the mission for a time, but was at last apprehended and kept a prisoner in Wisbech Castle

Wisbech Castle

Wisbech castle was a motte-and-bailey castle built to fortify Wisbech, in the Fenland area of Cambridgeshire, England by William I in 1072. The Norman castle, reputedly was destroyed during a devastating flood of 1236, the original design and layout is still unknown.In the 15th century repairs were...

, where it is supposed he died. On 13 June 1586, Robert Gray of Wisbech addressed to Secretary Francis Walsingham

Francis Walsingham

Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...

 a petition praying for his release. In the end Bavant was set free.

Bavant returned to Wisbech in 1595, to mediate in the "Wisbech Stirs

Wisbech Stirs

The Wisbech Stirs was a divisive quarrel between English Roman Catholic clergy held prisoner in Wisbech Castle in Cambridgeshire, towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth I of England...

". He was associated with the Jesuit side of the dispute, though not in the Order of Jesus.