A True Historical Relation of the Conversion of Sir Tobie Matthew to the Holy Ca: With the Antecedents and Consequences Thereof

SIR TOBIE MATTHEW, priest, Jesuit, and Knight, was born at Salisbury, 3 October, 1577, and was the eldest son of Dr. Tobie Matthew, then Dean of Christchurch, Oxford, who subsequently became Anglican Bishop of Durham, and finally Archbishop of York. His mother was Frances Parker, widow of the Rev. Matthew Parker, who was a son of the Archbishop of Canterbury of that name. Her father was William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, the reputed consecrator of Matthew Parker, the founder of the new Anglican hierarchy. Dr. Tobie Matthew, the father of Sir Tobie, was the son of John Matthew, a Bristol merchant, a member of the ancient family of the Mathews of Glamorgan, who traced their descent from Cunedda, the over-king of all Wales, ancestor of Gwaethvoed Vawr, Prince of Cardigan, the progenitor of Sir David Mathew of Llandaff, and of the Earls of Landaff of Thomastown, Co. Tipperary. This family, for many generations powerful in South Wales, remained for the most part true to the ancient Faith all through the troublous times of the Reformation, and the evil days that succeeded it. John Matthew of Bristol and his wife, however, conformed to the new religion, under pressure of the Penal Laws of Elizabeth. Yet they were strongly opposed to the ultra-Protestant opinions embraced by their son, and did their utmost to prevent his entry into the Anglican ministry. He, however, followed the advice of clerical friends and became a clergyman, later on to be noted for his vigorous repression of Catholicism in the North of England, his severity towards “Popish recusants," and his activity in preaching, chiefly polemical discourses, in every portion of his extensive dioceses. Tobie was ordained by Saint Robert Cardinal Bellarmine in Rome after his conversion to the Catholic Faith. This is the story of this conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism.