PARSONS, ROBERT

   English Jesuit, born in Somersetshire, educated at Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College; he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and entered the Society of Jesus in 1575; conceived the idea of reclaiming England from her Protestant apostasy, and embarked on the enterprise in 1580, but found it too hot for him, and had to escape to the Continent; after this he busied himself partly in intrigues to force England into submission and partly in organising seminaries abroad for English Roman Catholics, and became head of one at Rome, where he died; he appears to have been a Jesuit to the backbone, and to have served the cause of Jesuitry with his whole soul (1546-1610).