James Mumford

Who was James Mumford?

James Mumford was an English Jesuit and Catholic controversialist.

Born in Norfolk or Suffolk, Mumford became a Jesuit novice in 1626, was ordained priest at Liège around 1635, and made his Jesuit profession in 1641. He taught in the Jesuit colleges at St Omer, Watten, and Liège, where he was elected rector in 1648. He returned to England in 1650, based in Norwich as a member of the Jesuit College of the Holy Apostles, which comprised the Jesuits' English mission to eastern counties. In the late 1650s he was arrested, displayed in the city streets, and imprisoned. After no witnesses were found to accuse him of the crime of being a priest, he was discharged and returned to mission work.

Aside from his controversial writings, Mumford wrote several works on purgatory.