Father Henry More

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Father Henry More (1586-1661) was an English Jesuit provincial and church historian.

[edit] Biography

He was the great-grandson of the martyred English chancellor Thomas More. Henry was born in 1586; died at Watten in 1661. Having studied at St. Omer and Valladolid, he entered the Society of Jesus, 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 to John, the first Lord Petre.

He became provincial superior in 1635, and in that capacity had a good deal to do with the negotiations of Panzani, Conn and Rossetti, the papal agents at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria. He was rector of St. Omer from 1649 to 1652, and again 1657 to 1660.

[edit] 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).