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INTRODUCTION: HISTORY: PRE- ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND During his years as a student at the University of Paris, Ignatius Loyola was forced to make periodic excursions to beg alms to support himself. Thrice between 1529 and 1531 he travelled to Bruges and Antwerp to seek assistance from Spanish merchants there. On one of these trips he met the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives, who had recently returned from an increasingly troubled England. Apparently Vives suggested that Ignatius expand his tour to include England.² In 1531 the latter crossed the channel . About this expedition he madeonly one brief statement in his laconic autobiography: Once he even went to Englandand broughtback more alms than he usually did in other years .'3 Some subsequent biographers have attempted to reconstruct Loyola's path and have deduced visits to Carthusians , WestminsterAbbey, and Syon Abbey. However interesting these analyses may be, they remain conjecture . Ignatius may have visited Spanish merchants on the south coast and not ventured into London. A second contactbetween the Society of Jesus and England was even more brief. Robert Wauchope , an instructor at the University of Parisand an early supporter of the Ignatian circle, was appointed administrator of the Irish diocese of Armagh in 1539 after the incumbent succumbed to heresy . Because of his involvement on the continent, Wauchopewas not able to departimmediately. In March of 1540 he asked the pope to send two men to survey the situation. Paschase Broët and Alfonso Salmerón left for Ireland on 10 September 1541. On the journey they called on Reginald Pole, to whom Ignatius wished to be remembered and whose advice they sought . Pole warned them of the dangers and urged them to leave Ireland at the first sign of danger. A later visit to David Cardinal Beaton , Archbishop of St. Andrews and Primate of Scotland, at Lyons resulted in a strong attemptto dissuade them from their mission. Despite the cardinal's warnings the two Jesuits sailedfrom Flanders to Scotland in December . The voyage lasted twenty days because of high winds and turbulent seas . Twice the ship was forced to seek safety in English ports. The foreign dress of the two Jesuits and their ignorance of English aroused the suspicions of the English. The Jesuits identified themselves as simple Spanish travellers, a successful ploy because of an AngloSpanish treaty directed against France that was then under negotiation. After a stop at the Stuart court in Edinburgh, the Jesuits travelled to Ireland, where they remained for a month with disappointing results.5
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