ABSTRACT
Persons are the Prefect of the Jesuit mission to England, in constant communication with the superior on the ground, Henry Garnet. This was a powerful position within an otherwise weak and embattled English Catholic community. In England, meanwhile, a fresh propaganda war was brewing with the appearance of A Watch-word to all religious and true-hearted Englishmen, by Sir Francis Hastings, who characterized Catholics as dangerous dissidents. Many of these had left England at the time of the failure of the French marriage scheme of 1580, and so regarded themselves as having a stake in English Catholic diplomacy. In the process, conflict arose between the English Jesuit William Holt, a close associate of Persons's, and the Belgian Provincial, Oliver Mannaerts, who became fierce in his criticism of both Persons and Holt. Disaffection with the Jesuits came to a head at Wisbech Castle and the English College in Rome.
