SOUTHWELL (BACON), NATHANAEL. – Jesuit writer and bibliographer, born in Norfolk in 1598, died in Rome on 2 December 1676.
From 1617 to 1622 he was a student at the English College in Rome, where he changed his original surname Bacon to S. After two years of missionary activity in his homeland, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1624; having returned to Rome, he became minister at the English College (1627). For nearly twenty years he was secretary to five superiors general of the Order: Carafa, Piccolomini, Gottifredi, Nickel, and Oliva (1649–67), until he was entrusted with the editing and continuation of the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, begun by Fathers Ribade-
neira and Alegambe, which he brought up to the year 1675. A book of meditations for every day of the year by him is also preserved.