MATTHEW, TOBIE. — English priest, born at Salisbury on 3 October 1577, died at Ghent on 13 October 1655.
Of an Anglican family (his father was archbishop of York and his mother was the daughter of W. Barlow, bishop of Chichester), he took his degrees at Oxford (magister artium in 1597); in 1599 he entered Gray's Inn, where he found his ever-faithful friend Francis Bacon (d. 1626), who called M. his alter ego; in 1604, when James I ascended the throne, he became a member of Parliament for St. Albans, and was an elegant courtier of easy morals. His desire to travel, especially in Italy, was opposed by his parents, who were very strict in religious matters, but in 1604 he was permitted to go as far as France.
Disregarding his promise, M. continued on to Italy, where everything he saw greatly attracted him. The Lenten processions in Florence and devotion to the
Madonna aroused in M. remorse for his past life; as he pursued the search for truth, in 1606 he abjured Protestantism. Returning to England (1607), he was imprisoned for six months. In 1608 his friends obtained permission for him to travel abroad, where he remained for ten years. In May 1614 he was ordained a priest by s. Roberto Bellarmino in Rome. In 1617 he returned to England, but was again exiled from 1619 to 1622. Two letters from M. to the Pope have survived, characterizing as insincere King James’s promises of toleration (for the Catholic faith). In 1622 this King showed that he welcomed his return and made use of his diplomatic and linguistic skill by sending him to Madrid in 1623 as adviser to the duke of Buckingham and Prince Charles concerning the Spanish marriage, then under negotiation. When he returned, the King knighted him. Under Charles I (1625–49), M. was able to assist his English fellow believers, until the civil war of 1640 forced him to flee.
It is almost certain that M. was received into the Society of Jesus, of which he was a generous benefactor; while fleeing persecution, in fact, he went to the Jesuit house in Ghent, where he remained until his death.
M. translated into Italian (1618) the Saggi morali del signore F. Bacone, cavagliero inglese, gran cancelliero d'Inghilterra, con un altro suo trattato della sapienza degli antichi, with a dedicatory epistle to Cosimo, grand duke of Tuscany, and into English the Confessioni of s. Agostino (1620), the autobiography of s. Teresa (1613), and the “treatise on wisdom” of Fr. F. Arias (1650). He published A relation of the death of the most illustrious lord signor Troilo Savelle (1620), beheaded in Castel S. Angelo in 1620; A missive of consolation sent from Flanders to the catholics of England (1647); A true historical relation of the conversion of sir T. M. to the holie catholic fayth, partially published in his Life by C. Butler (1795), and in full in 1904 by A. H. Matthew, together with his valuable Letters (published by J. Donne in 1660), and other minor and uncertain writings. M. was a courageous Catholic who had a great love for Italy.