Winchester House, and in February 1642–3 the lord mayor petitioned for his release, but the proposal was negatived by the commons (ayes 32, noes 52). In July 1643 Queen Anne of Austria, the queen regent of France, addressed a letter to parliament, begging for Digby's freedom. After both houses had discussed the appeal, Digby was discharged from custody 30 July 1643, on condition that he left immediately for France, and promised not to return without parliament's leave. Before quitting his confinement he was rigorously examined as to his intimacy with Laud, and an endeavour was made to extract a declaration from him that Laud was anxious to obtain a cardinal's hat. But Digby insisted that his friend had always been, so far as he knew, a sincere protestant. He was allowed to carry with him his pictures and four servants. The French queen-dowager thanked parliament (6 Sept.), and on 18 Oct. the French ambassador requested the House of Lords to spare Digby's estate. Three witnesses deposed on oath that Digby had gone to church regularly while in England, and had great affection for the parliament; but on 1 Nov. 1643 the commons resolved to confiscate his property. When leaving London Digby published two recent literary efforts. One was ‘Observations on the 22nd Stanza in the Ninth Canto of the Second Book of Spenser's “Faery Queene”’—a mysterious passage which Digby had discussed with Sir Edward Stradling on their Mediterranean expedition. The other was ‘Observations,’ from a Roman catholic point of view, on the newly published ‘Religio Medici’ of Sir Thomas Browne, of which the Earl of Dorset had supplied Digby with an early copy. Digby wrote his ‘Observations’ in twenty-four hours. Browne heard of his exploit, and begged him to withdraw his criticism, but Digby explained that it was in type before Browne's remonstrance was received [see Browne, Sir Thomas].
In Paris Digby continued his studies, and in 1644 there appeared his chief philosophical books, ‘Of Bodies,’ and ‘Of the Immortality of Man's Soul.’ The dedication of the former to his son Kenelm is dated 31 Aug. 1644, and the license from the French king to print the book 26 Sept. following. Queen Henrietta Maria appointed Digby her chancellor, and in 1645 the English catholic committee sitting at Paris sent him to Rome to collect money for the royal cause. In July 1645 Digby was in frequent intercourse with Pope Innocent X, and obtained twenty thousand crowns from the papal curia. The papal legate Rinuccini was meanwhile on his way to Ireland, with a view to raising a new royalist army, and to preparing the way for a free exercise of the catholic religion there and in England. The latter was the main object of all Digby's political efforts. Digby was consulted by the papal authorities on the details of Rinuccini's expedition, but he gained the reputation of ‘a useless and restless man with scanty wisdom.’ His intimacy with Thomas White, an English catholic priest and metaphysician, whose philosophical ‘extravagances’ were at the time the talk of Rome, did not improve his position. At length he openly insulted the pope, who is said to have charged him with misappropriating the money entrusted to him. He left Rome in 1646 (cf. Cal. Clarendon State Papers, ii. 66; Rinuccini's Mission, English translation, 548, 556, 560). He paid a second visit to Rome in 1647, when in an address to the pope he pointed out that the former schemes had failed owing to Rinuccini's ‘punctiliousness and officiousness;’ but Digby's second mission proved as abortive as the first (cf. Digby's address to Pope Innocent X, in Westminster MS. Archives, xxx. 65, kindly communicated by Mr. S. R. Gardiner).
In August 1649 Digby suddenly returned to England. The council of state denounced him as dangerous. He declined to explain his reappearance, and was banished for the second time. In November he wrote to Conway from Calais, expressing a desire to live again beneath 'smiling English skies.' Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe met him at Calais in December, and were much amused by his conversation (Fanshawe, Memoirs, 83-4). On 1 March 1649–50 Lord Byron saw Digby, accompanied by some other Romanists, and one Watson, an independent, at Caen. They were bound for England, and intended, if possible, to come to terms with the regicides, in order to secure the free exercise of the Roman catholic religion in England. At Rouen Digby told a catholic physician named Winsted that if he declined to recognise the new rulers in England, ‘he must starve.’ Queen Henrietta knew, he said, of his going, and he travelled with a passport from the French king. Nothing is known of this visit to England. In November 1651 Evelyn visited Digby in Paris, witnessed some of his chemical experiments, and attended with him Febur's chemical lectures. Digby was already intimate with Descartes, to whom he had introduced himself at Egmond some years before. On 14 Nov. 1653 the council of state gave him permission to return to England, on his promising to do nothing prejudicial to the government. Early in 1654 he took advantage of this order, and on 6 April 1654 stayed with Evelyn at Wotton.
There can be no doubt that Digby while in
