Gordon-Huntly, James, 1541-1620, Jesuit priest

Person

Gordon-Huntly, James, 1541-1620, Jesuit priest

1541-17 April 1620

Born: 1541, Scotland
Entered: 20 September 1563 - Angliae Province (ANG)
Died: 17 April 1620, Paris, France - Angliae Province (ANG)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gordon_(Jesuit)

James Gordon (1541 – 16 April 1620) was a Scottish Jesuit. He is sometimes known as James Gordon Huntly, to distinguish him from James Gordon (1553–1641), another Jesuit.

Life
He was the fifth son of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, by Elizabeth Keith, Countess of Huntly, eldest daughter of Robert, Lord Keith, and sister of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome on 20 September 1563, and taught philosophy, theology, sacred scripture, and Hebrew in the colleges of the order at Pont-à-Mousson, Paris, and Bordeaux.[1]

In 1584 William Crichton and Gordon were sent on a mission to Scotland. Their vessel was seized on the high seas by the Dutch. The ship was released; but the merchant who had hired her for the voyage, having discovered that his two passengers were priests, accused them as enemies, and the Dutch detained them. The merchant was concerned about the attitude of the Earl of Huntly, Gordon's nephew, and Gordon was set free after the substitution of a secular priest in his place.[1]

On arriving in Scotland Gordon, as a kinsman of King James VI, had influence among the nobility; and he engaged in public discussions with Protestant ministers. For two months he followed the king everywhere else in hope of finding an opportunity to convert him to Catholicism. He then went to the north of Scotland, where he held a public discussion on matters of faith with George Hay and made converts including Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll. In 1585 other Jesuits arrived, Edmund Hay and John Durie. Reporting to Francis Walsingham on 18 October 1585, Thomas Rogers wrote that the Jesuits were announcing progress on conversions, and were still aiming to make the king a Catholic. The situation changed with the return of the exiled lords to power.[1]

In February 1588 Gordon held a conference with Protestant ministers in the presence of James at Holyrood Palace. The king determined in 1592 to raise Catholics to power. On the advice of his councillors of state he sent Gordon and Crichton to Rome to arrange with the Pope means of restoring the Catholic religion in Scotland. They areturned to Scotland in company with the legate George Sampiretti, landing at Aberdeen on 16 July 1594. As the popular agitation increased, James changed his mind and resolved that laws against Catholics should be enforced. Gordon was sent into exile in 1595; but he subsequently paid two visits to Scotland in June 1597 and December 1598, still with the object of bringing about the conversion of the king.[1]

Gordon died at the Jesuit college in Paris on 16 April 1620.[1]

Works
Gordon's works are:[1]

Controversiarum Epitomes, in qua de quæstionibus theologicis hac nostra ætate controversis, breviter disputatur: idque ex sacris præsertim literis, Poitiers, 1612. The second volume, In quo de augustissimo Eucharistiæ Sacramento contra Calvinianos breviter disputatur, appeared at Paris, 1618. They were reprinted by John Kinchius, with a third part, at Cologne, 1620, under the title of Controversiarum Christianæ Fidei adversus hujus temporis Hæreticos Epitome. This work led to the publication by Solomon Glassius of Dicta Jehovæ, Genesis cap. 3, v. 15 (semen tuum, &c.), a J. Gordoni Huntlæi Jesuitæ Scoti φλυαρίαις et interpretamentis vindicata, Jena, 1625.
Treatise of the Unwritten Word of God, commonly called Traditions, 1614.
Summary of the Controversies, wherein are briefly treated the cheefe Questions of Divinity, now a Dayes in Dispute betweene Catholikes and Protestants, 1618.
Tractatus de Censuris et Irregularitatibus, manuscript, once in the library of the Jesuits at Mantua.
Explanation of the Decree of Gratian, manuscript.

Notes
Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Gordon, James (1541-1620)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 22. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

◆ Menology of the Society of Jesus: The English Speaking Assistancy

April 14

Father James Gordon, son of the fourth Earl of Huntly, was born in 1541, and entered the Society in Rome, in the year 1563. After filling the highest offices in various Colleges throughout France, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio for Ireland, and Prefect of the Scottish Mission. His ardent zeal obtained for him the great merit and reward of imprisonment for the Catholic Faith both in Scotland and in England; and the only grief of this humble Religious, and truly Apostolic man, was his being denied the glory of shedding his blood and giving up his life for Christ. Upon the death of his four elder brothers, the right to the titles and estates of his father, the Earl of Huntly, devolved upon him, and though the wily statesmen then in power requested him to avail himself of his rights, they were determined that if he did so, it should be with the sacrifice of his religion. The terrible engine of civil excommunication was then in full force throughout Scotland, and when a Catholic continued firm, the sentence was passed. His property at once became confiscated to the Crown, his body was cast into prison, and if he was released therefrom, no one would either break bread with him or speak to him, but would shun him as if infected with the pestilence. Father Gordon, determinedly refusing the proffered titles and honours, chose, as his "to be an in the house of God and in the biographer narrates, abject most holy Society of Jesus, and, under the yoke of obedience, to pass a long and voluntary martyrdom in banishment, rather than enjoy the contentment and estate of temporal greatness and felicity”.

As regards his mission to Scotland, Father Crichton writes, in 1585, “Among'' the other causes which contributed in no small decree to the growth of the Catholic religion in Scotland, was the personal influence of Father Gordon. He was a kinsman to the King, and not only touched the hearts of many persons by his holiness of life, but further, being a man of great learning, he openly defeated the ministers of the heretics in the public discussions which were held. Father Gordon put on the habit of the Society, and made his appearance before James and eight ministers. For two whole months he remained beside the King, making every effort for his conversion; he then went north. On his return to Scotland in 1593, he found that a small force of nearly two thousand men had been raised to oppose the heretical army of six thousand. Along with other Jesuit Fathers he heard the confessions of all the Catholic soldiers, and gave them Communion. The men after this, begged that their weapons might be sprinkled with holy water, and at the same time fastened a white cross upon their arms and coats, to let the enemy see that they were fighting in defence of the Cross of Christ. The victory subsequently remained with the Catholics, and none of those who bore the cross lost their lives”. Later on Father Gordon was forced by the King to exile himself but before going he entreated that he might be allowed to engage in public disputation with the heretical doctors, and offered to surrender his very life were he defeated in controversy, provided that if he prevailed, liberty of conscience should be granted to Catholics. Father Gordon quitted the country with the full prestige of victory. In 1597, and again in 1599, he wrote two very long and important letters to Father General Claud Acquaviva, in which he showed himself to be a man of great forethought as well as of wide and thorough acquaintance with all that was going on in this country, but he was somewhat over sanguine in his hopes of the ultimate triumph of Catholicity in the land, even so late as the year 1605, although many circumstances certainly favoured the view. It was Father Gordon who, when in Paris, in 1613, sent over Father John Ogilvie and Father James Moffat into Scotland. He died at the Jesuit College, Paris, on Good Friday, in the month of April, 1621: aged eighty. His interment was conducted with unusual pomp and .solemnity. He was the author of Controversiarum Christianæ Fidei adversus hujus temporis Hereticos Epitome; published in three volumes, in different places, and at different dates.

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