Christopher Perkins (priest)
Jesuit Priest, Ambassador, Cardinal, Knight; (1547-1622)
Sir Christopher Perkins (or Parkins) (1547? – 1622) was an English Jesuit turned diplomat and MP.
Life
He was educated at Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 7 April 1565; but on 21 October next year he entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, aged 19. According to Charles Dodd, he was among the Jesuits for many years; but gradually he became estranged from them, and while at Venice, perhaps about 1585, he wrote a book on the society; it does not appear to have been published.
It took generally favourable view, but seems to have been subsequently thought by the English government likely to prove damaging. About the same time William Cecil visited Rome; Perkins intervened when his religious opinions created a difficult situation. Perkins is said then to have returned with young Cecil, who recommended him to his grandfather Lord Burghley's favour.
Return to England
In 1587 he was resident at Prague, being described in the government's list of recusants abroad as a Jesuit. There he became acquainted with Edward Kelley, who in June 1589 accused him of being an emissary of the pope, and of complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth. Soon afterwards Perkins arrived in England, and seems to have been imprisoned on suspicion. On 12 March 1590 he wrote to Francis Walsingham, undermining Kelley and appealing to a commendation from the King of Poland as proof of his innocence and abandoned his religious vows and former faith.
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This entry incorporates text from “Christopher Perkins (priest)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.