PAR 
PAR 
ritual court, and to take Dr. Lufhington’s opinion upon 
the cafe, of which the following is a copy : “lam of 
opinion that the redfor is entitled to the cuftody of the 
key of the church, he allowing the church-warden the 
ufe of it upon proper and neceffary occafions. It is the 
duty of the church-warden to apply to the redfor for the 
key when he wants it for lawful purpofes; and he has no 
right to retain the general cuftody, and thereby put the 
redfor to the inconvenience of fending to him for it. If 
the church-warden periifts in retaining the poffeflion of 
the key after demand made, I think he may be articled 
againft in the ecclefiaftical court having local jurifdidfion, 
and punifhed by its authority. S. Lushington.” —The 
defendant Friend, when the bulinefs came before the 
court, prudently followed the advice of his counfel ; and, 
quite fatisfied with the expenfes which had already been 
incurred, inftrudled his prodtor to confefs the articles, 
and put an end to the fuit by admitting the redfor’s ex- 
clufive right to the cuftody of the key. This affair, it 
feems, had been much canvaffed among the advocates at 
Doctors’ Commons. As the cafe is rather of a novel kind, 
they w'ere at firft fomewhat divided in their opinions ; but 
they are now unanimoufly agreed, that the key of the 
church is under the foie authority of the redfor or vicar. 
Parson mortal. The redfor of a church, inftituted 
and indudted for his own life, was called perjona mortalis ; 
and any collegiate or conventional body, to whom the 
church was for ever appropriated, was termed perjona im- 
mortalis. For further matter relating to parfons, fee the 
articles Church, Clergy, Curate, Tithes, &c. 
PAR'SON’s FIE'LD, a town of Maflachufetts, in the 
province of Maine : thirty-fix miles north-weft of Port¬ 
land. 
PAR'SON’s I'SLAND, a fmall ifland near the coaft of 
Maine. Lat. 44. 36. N. Ion. 67. 25. W. 
PAR'SON’s TOW'N, a town’of the ftate of North-Ca- 
rolina : thirty miles north-eaft of Salifbury. 
PAR'SONAGE, f. The bendfice of a parifh.—I have 
given him the parfonage of the parifh. Addijbn .—The 
houfe appropriated to the refidence of the incum¬ 
bent.—Dined by two o’clock at the Queen’s Head, and 
then ftraggled out alone to the parfonage. Gray's Letters. 
PAR'SONS (Robert), an Englifh Jefuit, was born of 
mean parentage at Nether Stowey in Somerfetfhire, in 
1546. The quick parts which he difplayed from infancy, 
caufed him to be noticed by the vicar of the parifh, who 
inftrudled him in Latin, and in 1563 procured him-ad- 
miffion into Baliol college, Oxford. He foon acquired 
diftindtion as an acute difputant; and, having obtained 
a fellowfhip in his college, was made chaplain, and en¬ 
tered into holy orders. He took pupils, and became the 
moft eminent tutor in that feminary. At this period he 
was fo zealous a Proteftant, that he gave admiflion to the 
writings of feveral authors of that perfuafion into the 
college-library, exchanging for them many old books 
and manufcripts. In 1752 he fucceeded to the office of 
burfar, and in the following year proceeded M. A. At 
this period a ftorm arofe againft him which was the oc- 
cafion of his quitting the univerfity, and the caufe of 
which is differently ftated. It appears that his harfh and 
deputations temper had made him many enemies; and 
there feems fufficient authority for crediting a charge 
brought againft him of falfifying his burfar’s accounts, 
and thereby defrauding the fociety. More, a brother- 
jefuit, indeed affirms that his open declaration of an at¬ 
tachment to the Roman-catholic religion was the caufe 
of meafures being taken to compel him to refign; but 
there is good evidence that he continued to profefs him- 
felf a Proteftant as long as he remained in college. 
His refignation took place in February 1573-4, and in 
that year he left England and went to Flanders. He 
fpent fome time in the Jefuits’ college at Louvain, and 
then proceeded to Italy, with the intention of ftudying 
phyfic or law. Inftead of purfuing either of thefe pro- 
feffions, he entered the fociety of Jefuits, in June 1575, 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1271. 
645 
at Rome; and, completing his courfe of theological ftu- 
dies, became a chief penitentiary, and a director of the 
Engliih feminary in that capital. On the recommenda¬ 
tion of father (afterwards cardinal) Allen, he was ap¬ 
pointed in 1580, together with Edmund Campion, to the 
dangerous million of England, the objedt of which was 
not only to propagate the Catholic religion, but to ex¬ 
cite difturbances againft the government of Elizabeth. 
Parfons landed at Dover, difguifed in a military habit, 
and proceeded to London, where he was joined by his 
companion. He entered with great zeal into the bulinefs 
of his million, and loudly condemned thofe compliances 
with the exifting authority in which many of the catholic 
laity thought themfelves juftified. He particularly op- 
pofed the occafional conformity of the papifts in going 
to church, and wrote a difcourfe containing reafons 
againft this pradlice. The vigilance of the queen’s mi- 
nifters rendered his office very hazardous ; and, on the 
apprehenfion of Campion the danger appeared fo urgent, 
that he eroded the fea and withdrew to Rouen. He there 
employed himfelf in printing feveral books for the fup- 
port of the caufe, which he procured to be privately dif- 
perfed in England. One of thefe, entitled “A Chriftian 
Directory or Exercife,” is highly extolled by the u'riters 
of his communion, and is faid to have been very fuccefs- 
ful. In 1583 Parfons returned to Rome, where the ma¬ 
nagement of the Englifh million was confided to him; 
and in 1586 the ftudents in the Engliih feminary at Rome 
chofe him for their redfor. In 1588, the year of the ar¬ 
mada, he was fent by the general of the order into 
Spain, where he employed every engine to promote Phi¬ 
lip’s defigns for the conqueft of England. Among other 
expedients, he planted feveral Englifh feminaries, the 
members of which he obliged to fublcribe to the infanta’s 
title to the crown of England. 
After the failure of this great projedf, when there were 
no longer any hopes of effedfing the depofition of Eliza¬ 
beth, he turned his thoughts to the defeating of king 
James’s fucceflion to the crown ; and for this purpofe, 
under the affumed name of Doleman, publilhed in 1594 
a famous treatife, entitled “ A Conference about the next 
Succeflion to the Crown of England.” This work is fup- 
pofed to have been drawn up by Parfons from materials 
fuggefted in a fociety to which he belonged with cardinal 
Allen, fir Francis Inglefield, and other Engliih Ca¬ 
tholics. Its objedt is tw'ofold : firft, to Ihow upon what 
grounds kings may be depofed or let afide, of which one 
of the principal is argued to be difference of religion : 
this topic had been amply difeuffed, efpecially by the Je¬ 
fuits, in the cafe of Henry IV. of France, and is here 
urged with fo much force, that the book was afterwards 
reprinted, under very different circumftances, in fupport 
of the national rights in the difpofal of the crown. The 
other objedt was to invalidate James’s hereditary title to 
the Englifh crown, by exhibiting the many other claims 
that might plaufibly be adduced from different ftocks of 
royalty. On this account the work w'as popularly called 
the “ Book of Titles;” there were, however, feveral mif- 
takes or mifreprefentations in the genealogies, as was 
fliown by Camden. 
Parfons continued two years longer in Spain ; and in 
1596, after the death of Allen, he went to Rome, with 
the hope, it is thought, of fucceeding him in the cardina- 
late. He was, however, not only difappointed in this 
expedlation ; but, upon feveral complaints againft him 
from the Engliih fecular priefts on the ground of his med- 
ling and fadtious condudl, found the pope fo ill difpofed 
towards him, that he thought proper to retire to Naples, 
where he remained till the death of that pontiff, (Clement 
VIII.) In 1606 he returned to Rome, having affiduoufly 
employed himfelf during this interval, as he did after¬ 
wards, in executing the office of fuperintendant of the 
Englifh miffion, and writing a number of books for the 
advantage of his religion and order. It is allowed that 
he acquitted himfelf with equal vigour and fidelity in the 
8 B difeharge 
