Parsons, Moses, a Congregational minister, was born at Gloucester, Mass., in 1716. He graduated at Harvard College in 1736; taught school at Manchester, and subsequently at Gloucester; was ordained at B}'- tield, Mass., in 1744, and continued pastor of that Church until his death in 1783. He published several Set-mons (1765,1772, 1773). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Puljnt, i, 448 sq. ; Memoirs of Chief Justice Parsons (his son), ch. ii, iii, vii.
Parsons, Philip, a noted English divine, was born at Dedham, Essex, in 1729. He was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Having taken orders, he was appointed to the Free School of Oakham, Rutland- shire. In 1761 he was presented to the school and cu- racy of Wye, became rector of Eastwell in 1767, and of Snave in 1776. He died in 1812. Parsons published Dialogues of the Dead ivith the Living (Anon.) (Lond. 1 779, 8vo) : — Six Letters to a Friend on the Establish- ment of Sunday-schools (ibid. 1786, 12mo). See Darling, Cyclop. Bihliog. ii, s. v. ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authors, ii, s. v. ; (Lond.) Gentleman's Magazine, vol. Ixxxii.
Parsons, Robert, better known as Father Par- dons, a noted English divine, originally a Protestant, but finally an ardent adherent of the Komish faith, and a most influential member of the Society of Jesus, was born of very hmnble parentage at Netherstowey, near Bridgewater, in Somersetsiiire, in 1546. He was as a boj' remarkable for his native endowments and his de- votion to study. 'I'lie vicar of the town, interested in the promising youth, gave him instruction in Latin and Greek, and when he liad been properly prepared for col- lege contributed liberally towards Hobcrt's support at Oxford, where he was admitted to Baliol College in 1563. In the imiversity Parsons was remarkable as a clever disputant in scholastic exercise, then much in vogue; so that, having taken bis lirst. degree in arts in 1568, he was the same year made probationer-fellow of
his college ; and, taking pupils, was presently the most noted tutor in it. He entered into orders soon after, and was made socius sacerdos, or chaplain-fellow. In 1572 he proceeded M.A., was bursar that year, and the next dean of the college ; but being charged by the so- ciety with incontinency and embezzling the college- money, to avoid the shame of a formal exjiidsion he was permitted, out of respect for his learning, to send in his resignation, Feb. 1573-4. After (juitting Oxford he went first to London, and thence, June, 1574, through Antwerp to Lou vain, where, meeting with the Jesuit father, Will- iam Good, his countryman, he spent a week in the spirit- ual exercises at the college of the Jesuits. He next pro- ceeded to Padua, there to study medicine, in order to practice it for a support; but he had not been long at Padua before the unsettled state of his mind and of his affairs excited in him a curiosity to visit liorae. This visit fixed him heartily as a Jesuit; for here meeting with some Englishmen of the order, he became so impa- tient to be among them that he went back to Padua, set- tled his affairs there, and returning to Rome, INIay, 1575, was chosen a member of the Society of Jesus, and admit- ted into the English college. He was indeed framed by nature, as well as bent by inclination, to this society, being fierce, turbulent, and bold, and he soon made a distinguished figure in it. Having completed the course of his studies, he became one of the principal penitenti- aries ; and was in such credit with the pope in 1579 that he obtained a grant from his highness to raise a hos- pital at Rome, founded in queen Mary's time, and to es- tablish it as a college or seminary for the English. Later he was sent, together with Campian, to England to influence the Anglican clergy towards a return to the Romish Church, and in this mission proved himself a most dexterous and wily messenger. As the law at the time forbade the admission of popish emissaries. Parsons carefully concealed his purpose, and made himself known only to those he knew he could safely trust. He at One time prided himself in having so far succeeded in his purpose, that the overture of the Anglican Church to the Romish fold was very imminent. But at this very time, so auspicious to him as he believed, his co-laborer was discovered by the watchful agents of lord Burleigh and imprisoned. Parsons thereupon hastily passed over into France, and stopped at Rouen. While in England he had found means to privately print and put in circu- lation books advocating the re-establishment of the pa- pal Church in England, and on kindred subjects; and now, not being otherwise employed, he printed others, which he likewise caused to be dispersed there. In 1583 he returned to Rome, being succeeded in his office of su- perior to the English mission by one Heyward. How- ever, the management of that mission was left to him by Aquaviva, the general of tlie order, and he was ap- pointed prefect of it in 1592. In the interim, having procured for the English seminary before mentioned at Rome a power of choosing an English rector in 1586, he was himself elected into that office the following year. Upon the prodigious preparations in Spain to invade England, father Parsons was despatched to ^Madrid, to turn the opportunity of the present temper of its mon- arch to the best advantage of the Jesuits, whose enor- mities had nearly brought them into the Inquisition. Parsons found means to elude the severity of that tribu- nal ; obtained of the king that his majesty sliould ap- point one of the judges, and himself another, for this In- quisition, and then set about the main business of the voyage. He caused seminaries to be erected for the purpose of supplying England from time to time with priests, who should keep alive the spirit of Romanism that he had enkindled, as well as opposition to tlie Prot- estant crown, and to prepare the papists there to join with any invasion which those abroad might procure. Thus, for instance, he dealt with the duke of Guise to erect a seminary for such a purpose in Normandy ; and now he prevailed with Philip II to erect such in Spain ; so that in a short time they could not only boast of their