Thomas Bell was an English Roman Catholic priest, and later an anti-Catholic writer.

Life

He was born at Raskelf

Raskelf

Raskelf is a Big village and civil parish in the district of North Yorkshire, England. The electoral role has a population of around 400. St Mary's church is notable as the only church in Yorkshire to have a wooden tower which dates back from medieval times. There still exists a 'pound' where...

, near Thirsk

Thirsk

Thirsk is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The local travel links are located a mile from the town centre to Thirsk railway station and to Durham Tees Valley Airport...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, in 1551, and is said to have been beneficed as a clergyman in Lancashire. Subsequently he became a Roman Catholic, and was imprisoned at York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, 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.

In 1586 he appears as the associate of Thomas Worthington

Thomas Worthington (Douai)

Thomas Worthington, D.D. was an English Catholic priest and third President of Douai College.-Life:...

 and other priests in Yorkshire, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, 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 elsewhere. 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.

Works

They include:

• ‘Thomas Bels Motives: concerning Romish Faith and Religion,’ Cambridge, 1593,; 2nd ed. 1605.
• ‘A Treatise of Usurie,’ Cambridge, 1594.
• ‘The Survey of Popery,’ London, 1596.
• ‘Hunting of the Romish Fox,’ 1598. This is entered on the Stationers' Register
  Stationers' Register
  The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
  
  , 8 April 1598, and Bell himself claims the authorship in his Counterblast. Another work with the same title had been published by William Turner in 1543 (Basle).
• ‘The Anatomie of Popish Tyrannie, wherein is conteyned a Plain Declaration … of the Libels, Letters, Edictes, Pamphlets, and Bookes lately published by the Secular Priests, and English Hispanized Jesuites,’ London, 1603.
• ‘The Golden Balance of Tryall,’ London, 1603, annexed to this is ‘A Counterblast against the Vaine Blast of a Masked Companion, who termeth Himself E. O., but thought to be Robert Parsons, the Trayterous Jesuite.’
• ‘The Downefall of Poperie, proposed by way of challenge to all English Jesuites and … Papists,’ London, 1604 and 1605; reprinted and entitled ‘The Fall of Papistrie’ in 1628. Robert Parsons, Richard Smith, and Francis Walsingham
  Francis Walsingham (Jesuit)
  Francis Walsingham was an English Jesuit priest, who assumed the name John Fennell.-Life:The son of Edward Walsingham of Exhall, near Alcester, Warwickshire, he was born at Hawick, Northumberland. His father died before his birth, and his mother, who was a Roman Catholic, brought him to London...
  
  wrote answers to this.
• ‘The Woefull Crie of Rome,’ London, 1605.
• ‘The Popes Funerall: containing an exact and pithy Reply to a pretended Answere of a .. Libell, called the “Forerunner of Bells Downfall.” … Together with his Treatise called the Regiment of the Church,’ London, 1606.
• ‘The Jesuites Ante-past: containing a Reply against a Pretended Aunswere to the Downefall of Poperie,’ London, 1608.
• ‘The Tryall of the New Religion,’ London, 1608.
• ‘A Christian Dialogue between Theophilus, a Deformed Catholike in Rome, and Remigius, a Reformed Catholike in the Church of England,’ 1609.
• ‘The Catholique Triumph: conteyning a reply to the pretended answere of B. C. [i.e. Parsons] lately published against The Tryall of the New Religion,’ London, 1610.

In his ‘Jesuites Ante-past’ he states that Queen Elizabeth granted him a pension of fifty pounds a year, which James I continued to him.