— from “A Fourefould Meditation on the Foure Last Things”
St. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel (1557–1595) was an English poet and writer — and a nobleman of the famous Howard family, which included courtesans, poets, and other distinguished figures in English history. Baptized Catholic, St. Philip fell away from his faith until witnessing St. Edmund Campion’s and St. Ralph Sherwin’s erudite defense of the Catholic faith in the Tower of London against a team of Protestant scholars. Converting on the spot, he, too, was eventually incarcerated in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth I, although she held out hope to the end that Howard, one of her court favorites, would recant. Dying a martyr’s death, St. Philip left behind a small but considerable cache of religious verse.
— from “A Fourefould Meditation on the Foure Last Things”
St. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel (1557–1595) was an English poet and writer — and a nobleman of the famous Howard family, which included courtesans, poets, and other distinguished figures in English history. Baptized Catholic, St. Philip fell away from his faith until witnessing St. Edmund Campion’s and St. Ralph Sherwin’s erudite defense of the Catholic faith in the Tower of London against a team of Protestant scholars. Converting on the spot, he, too, was eventually incarcerated in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth I, although she held out hope to the end that Howard, one of her court favorites, would recant. Dying a martyr’s death, St. Philip left behind a small but considerable cache of religious verse.
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