ABSTRACT
Most of Robert Persons's opponents during his lifetime used the 'Parsons' spelling, and they follows in the main by both Catholic and Protestant writers of succeeding generations. The popular image of 'Father Parsons the Jesuit', scheming, traitorous, ruthless, over-ingenious, derives ultimately from the personal attacks made by his contemporary opponents in controversy. The 'Father Parsons' myth, as constructed in the period 1598 to 1610, consisted of three main elements: 'Father Parsons' the sophist, 'Father Parsons' the personal enemy of Queen Elizabeth, and 'Father Parsons' the bastard. Persons survived his controversies with Sutcliffe and Morton and the appellants, and it would probably be fair to say that he had the better of both disputes. But the legend of 'Father Parsons', Jesuit mastermind with a hidden Hispanic agenda, has persisted almost to the present day. A succession of able Jesuit historians, J. H. Pollen, Leo Hicks, Francis Edwards and Thomas McCoog, has helped to correct the legend of 'Father Parsons'.
