Pilgrim Ways

"prelatical trash." The present owners of Hoghton Tower, Sir Bernard and Lady Rosanna Hoghton, hope to see their home become a centre of study for the lost legacy of Shakespearean Catholicism and this, linked to the development of the nearby Stonyhurst College with its outstanding collection of Jesuit artifacts and manuscripts from the period, will offer the Catholic pilgrim a deep understanding of their history and heritage. The clash and the consequences of loyalty forcing the Hoghtons to choose between the Catholic faith and the State, was well summed up in a ballad penned by Thomas Hoghton, entitled "The Blessed Conscience": At Hoghton hygh, which is a bower Of sports and lordly pleasure.

I wept, and lefte that loftie tower Wich was my chiefest treasure.

To save my soul and lose ye reste Yt was my trew pretence: Lyke fryghted bird, I lefte my neste To kepe my conscyence.

At Hoghton where I used to reste Of men I had great store, Ful twentie gentlemen att least, Of yeomen gode three score.

And of them all, I brought but twoe Wyth mee, when I cam thence.

I left them all, ye world knows how, To kepe my conscyence.

Fayr England! now ten tymes adieu, And frendes that theryn dwel; Fayrwel my broder Richard trewe, Whom I did love soe wel.

Fayrwel, fayrwel, gode people all, And learn experience; Love not too much ye golden ball, But kepe your conscyence.

Underground Church of Lancashire Lancashire produced many of those who put conscience first and provided leadership to the underground church. Within the county many of the Lancashire gentry stayed loyal to the faith, suffering huge personal consequences. One fifth of those who had entered Douai by 1584 came from Lancashire and nine of the twenty one Catholic school-masters executed by Elizabeth were Lancastrians. The lists of dissenters also reveal the crucial role played by the county's Catholic women in holding on to their faith - some travelling to the continent to enter religious houses there (over 30 between 1603 and 1642). The daughter of Robert Dalton, of Aldcliffe, summed up her defiance on a stone carved with the words "Catholicae Virgines no summus: Mutare vel tempore Spernimus Ano Dni 1674 - We are Catholic virgins who scorn to change with the times." The stone was later removed to Thurnham Hall. The Jesuit Order, the Benedictine Order, and the seminary priests trained at Douai were the principal influences, with eight Lancastrians joining the Jesuits during Elizabeth's reign