George Blackwell

After the death of Cardinal Allen in 1594, the leadership of the clandestine Catholic Mission in England was thrown into disarray. On 7 March 1598, Pope Clement VIII appointed Blackwell archpriest over the secular clergy in England.[3] Six assistants were named for him and another six were left to his discretion. As Archpriest, he lodged at the town house of Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, when in London. His instructions enjoined him to work in close consultation with the head of the Jesuit mission in England.

A number of secular priests in England, thinking Blackwell was too close to the Jesuits, appealed to the Pope to overturn Blackwell's appointment and name a vicar apostolic with full episcopal powers. Bitter controversy followed on this appeal, and two more appeals followed. According to John Hungerford Pollen, Blackwell's "main defect appears to have been an entire want of experience in government, Joined wit xaggerated ideas of his position as Superior."[4]

The English government was keen to turn the controversy to its advantage, and encouraged Blackwell's "Appellant" enemies behind the scenes. The upshot of the third and final appeal was that Blackwell's powers were confirmed, but he was censured for his lack of tact[3] and ordered in future not to communicate to the Jesuits any matters pertaining solely to the mission of the secular clergy.

Following the Gunpowder Plot, Blackwell wrote to Rome and obtained a letter from Pope Paul V condemning the plot and calling on English Catholics not to disturb the peace. Part of the English government's response was to enforce a new oath of allegiance, drafted in such a way that it was bound to create divisions within the English Catholic community as to whether it could be taken in good conscience. In particular, one passage of the oath could be read as giving the English authorities the right to define heresy.

He wrote an open letter to the English clergy, urging them to do the same. He insisted that the oath could legitimately be read as not contradicting the pope's "Supremacie in spirituall causes". The Pope, however, condemned the new oath soon afterwards. Blackwell, and some others, continued to defend the oath despite this. An international theological controversy developed concerning the licitness of the oath.[5]

Blackwell was captured near Clerkenwell on 24 June 1607. He was initially at the Gate-House in Westminster, and then at The Clink in Southwark. Over the following ten days he was questioned several times as to whether or not he had been aware of the Gunpowder Plot, and about his opinion of the oath. At the end of that period he was tendered the oath, which he took.[6]

Blackwell's interpretation of the oath did not satisfy the Pope himself, who relieved Blackwell of his position as archpriest,[6] nor the English authorities, who kept him imprisoned for the remainder of his life.

George Blackwell died in The Clink on 12 January 1613.[6]