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THE CAPUCHIN MISSION TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 215 Nugent's arrival in Paris the friary in the rue Saint-Honore had acted :as a centre for the English-speaking recruits to the Capuchin order. In the year 1587 three talented nobles from Great Britain were to be found as Capuchin novices at Paris - Benet Fitch from Canfield in England, John Chrysostom Campbell from Glasgow in Scotland, Archangel Barlow from Pembroke in Wales 9 • All three had a burning desire to introduce the order to their native countries. Benet and John Chrysostom gained their opportunity in 1599. Disguised in secular clothes and alive with missionary zeal they landed near Sandwich. With a Franciscan ingenuousness which must have almost disarmed their enemies they walked into the jail at Sandwich under the impression that it was an inn 10 • They were promptly lodged there at Her Majesty's expense. From Sandwich they were brought to London where examined by no less a person than Sir Robert Cecil, secretary of state 11 • Campbell, a subject of the Scottish king and a member of the House of Argyll, was released in March 1600 at the request of Henry IV of France, and transported from the country. Benet had to pay the price of his English citizenship, but was fortunate enough to be released after three years' imprisonment and sent into exile 12 • He never again set foot in England. Paris claimed him as a spiritual director, and he became one of the formative influences in the rising mystical movement on the continent. It was a quirk of fate that among those drawn to the Capuchin order by his influence was Joseph Leclerc du Tremblay, known henceforth as Friar Joseph of Paris 13 • Even before falling under Benet's spell the ·young French aristocrat gained a personal acquaintance with English affairs. In 1597, a year before joining the Capuchins, he went to England in the suite of his relation, Hurault de Maisse, the French ambassador-extraordinary 14 • It is unknown to what extent Benet may have turned Friar Joseph's mind to the beleaguered Catholics of England. There can ·be little doubt of the stimulation given by Francis Nugent. Friar 9 CUTHBERT, Capuchins I, 221. 10 BENEDICT OF BOLTON, O.F.M.Cap., Father John Chrysostom, Scotch Capuchin, in Coll. . Franc. 4(1934) 578; OPTAT DE VEGHEL, O.F.M.Cap., Benoit de Canfield, 1563-1610, Rome 1949, 150-151; Lex.Cap., 850. 11 OPTAT DE VEGHEL, op. cit., 152-154. 1 z N. ARCHBOLD, O.F.M.Cap., Evangelical/ Fruict of the Seraphicall Franciscan Order, British Museum, Harleian MS 3888, p.61 (see Cat.Harleian MSS III, London 1912, 94). Fr. .-Cuthbert (Capuchins I, 221) states it was two years, but Optat de Veghel (Benoit de Can– field, 146-166), decides it was three and a half years. 13 OPTAT DE VEGHEL, op. cit., 413; L. DEDOUVRES, Le Pere Joseph de Paris, capucin, l'Emi– .nence Grise I, Paris-Angers 1932, 135, 144; II, 91. 14 L. DEDOUVRES, op. cit., II, 91. ;MMP II - 15