John Gerard, S.J. (1564-1606) was an English Jesuit priest.He successfully hid from the English authorities for 18 years before his capture. He is famous because despite being terribly tortured he managed to escape from the Tower of London and, after recovering, continued with his work. Unlike many of his contemporaries he survived his mission, and escaping back to the safety of the content, was instructed under holy obedience to write a book about his life. The autobiography of an Elizabethan John Gerard (ISBN B0000CI1BG) This is a remarkable book, as it is a first hand account of the cloak and dagger world of being a Catholic Priest in Elizabethan England.

Education Abroad and First Mission

Due to the prohibition of Catholics from Universities in England Gerard was sent to study at the Catholic school of Douai, Rheims. Then with the Jesuits at Cleremont. As was the fate of so many Jesuits who often returned to England with foreign clothing and accents Gerard was arrested soon after he landed to begin his political mission at Dover. He was sent to the prison of Marshalsea where many illegal priests already resided. Anthony Babington, who was later executed for treason, having been involved in a plot to free the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, posted bond to secure Gerard's release.

Second Mission

He then went to Rome and was eventually given another mission on behalf of the Jesuits to England. Eventually Gerard met up with the leader of the Jesuits in England Father Henry Garnet. Father Gerard was soon a very popular figure in the illegal Catholic underworld. He impressed many as a very secular gentleman and was skilled in gambling and wore fashionable dress-a clever disguise but a very real one for such a figure in the political war which was the counter reformation. Gerard wrote of many escapes from the law and of his attempts to evade due process by using priest hides.

Capture and Torture

He was eventually tracked down in London, was tried, found guilty and sent to the Counter in the Poultry. Later he was moved to the Clink prison where he was able to continue his Jesuit mission and meet regularly with other proponents of the counter reformation in England. Due to his continuation of this work he was sent to the Salt tower in the Tower of London where he was further questioned and tortured concerning his ´illegal´ activities by the authorities.

Escape

He escaped along with John Arden with the help of other members of the Counter Reformation. The escape was dramatic upon a rope across the moat. Immediately following his escape he joined Henry Garnet and Robert Catesby. Later Gerard moved to the house of Elizabeth Vaux a Counter Reformation Patriot. From this base of operations Gerard continued in his mission illegally converting many including Sir Everard Digby (one of the plotters). He later suspected Digby of plotting but did not act upon his observations thus allowing the plot to proceed undetected. When the plot was discovered he was a wanted man being linked to the main leaders of the Counter Reformation. He was implicated by Robert Catesby's servant Thomas Bates. Staying a while at Harrowden then escaping from there to London he left the country with financial aid from Elizabeth Vaux and the Ambassadors of Flanders and Spain (supporters of the counter reformation in England) on the very day of Henry Garnet's execution. Gerard went on to continue the work of the Jesuits in Europe where he wrote his major works. He died in 1637, aged 73 in Rome

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1564 births | 1606 deaths | English clergy | Jesuits