Thomas Darbyshire

Who was Thomas Darbyshire?

Thomas Darbyshire was an English churchman and Jesuit.

He was a nephew of Edmund Bonner by a sister. He received his education at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1544, B.C.L. in 1553, and D.C.L. on 20 July 1556. His uncle collated him to the prebend of Totenhall in St Paul's Cathedral on 23 July 1543, to the rectory of Hackney on 26 May 1554, to the rectory of Fulham on 1 October 1558, to the archdeaconry of Essex on 22 October 1558, and to the rectory of St. Magnus, near London Bridge, on 27 November 1558. He was also chancellor of the diocese of London, in which capacity he examined Protestants who were brought before Bishop Bonner about matters of faith.

On the accession of Elizabeth I, he was a conspicuous Catholic, and was deprived of all his preferments. He remained in England, however, for some time, and was deputed to attend the Council of Trent. He was sent in order to procure an opinion on the point, then controversial, whether the Catholic faithful might frequent the Protestant churches in order to avoid the penalties decreed against recusants. He brought back an answer to the effect that attendance at the heretical worship would be a great sin. It was at his prompting that the fathers of the Council passed the decree De non adeundis Haereticorum ecclesiis. He afterwards suffered imprisonment in London, and eventually left England.