or three hundred ream of paper, which was more yearly profit to me than the gains that I got by the law, I assure you I get not now forty shillings a year by the law, nor I printed not a hundred ream of paper this two year’ (Ellis, Orig. Letters, 3rd ser. ii. 309). In 1536 he attacked the practice of paying tithes, and perhaps for his opinions expressed on this occasion, as well as on account of the suspicion attaching to him as the friend and brother-in-law of Sir Thomas More, he was thrown into prison. In spite of his petitions to Cromwell, he was not released, and he probably died in prison in the same year (Letters and Papers Hen. VIII, x. No. 248, xi. No. 1487). His will proves that he had become poor, for he leaves to his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John More [q. v.] and sister of Sir Thomas More, only the house he had settled upon her on her marriage. His son William [q. v.] is separately noticed.
Besides the works mentioned above, Rastell compiled ‘Exposiciones Terminorum Legum Anglorum,’ 1527 (Brit. Mus.), which has also been attributed to his son, who published an English translation in 1567, of which further editions appeared in 1579, 1602, 1641, and 1667. Rastell also wrote a moral play, entitled ‘A new Interlude and a Mery of the Nature of the IIII Elements’ [1519], 8vo. The only copy known to be extant is in the British Museum, and that is imperfect; it was edited for the Percy Society in 1848 by Halliwell-Phillipps, who describes it as ‘the only dramatic piece extant in which science is attempted to be made popular through the medium of theatrical representation.’ Dibdin gave the date as 1510, but that is probably too early, and 1519, the date given in manuscript in the British Museum copy, is more likely to be correct. Halliwell-Phillipps considered Rastell's authorship as doubtful, but the ‘Interlude,’ in which ‘Nature Naturate’ appears as the second of the dramatis personæ, is obviously identical with the ‘Natura Naturata’ which Wood attributes to Rastell, and calls ‘a large and ingenious comedy.’ Wood and Pits also mention several other works by Rastell which are not known to be extant.
[Preface to Dibdin's reprint of the Pastyme, 1811; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, passim; Pits, De Script. Angl.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 101–2; Foxe's Actes and Mon. v. 9, 11; Strype's Works, index; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib.; Engl. Cyclop.; Ellis's Orig. Letters, 3rd ser. ii. 308–12; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, i. 326 sqq.; Bibliographica, pt. viii.; More's Life of Sir Thomas More, 1746, p. 110; Hutton's Life of More, pp. 5, 106.]
RASTELL, JOHN (1532–1577), jesuit, born at Gloucester in 1532, was admitted into Winchester school in 1543 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 124); and thence proceeded to New College, Oxford, of which he became a perpetual fellow in 1549. He graduated M.A. 29 July 1555, and about that time was ordained priest (Oxford Univ. Register, i. 228). Being unable to comply with the religious changes in Elizabeth's reign, he left his college, ‘wherein he had always been accounted an excellent disputant,’ and retired to Louvain. He removed to Antwerp in 1564, and subsequently went to Rome, where he entered the jesuit novitiate of St. Andrew 6 April 1568, being, for a short time, fellow-novice with St. Stanislas Kostka. After completing his noviceship, he was English penitentiary for a time at St. Peter's, Rome. He was then sent as confessor and consultor to the house of the jesuits at Hall. Thence he was removed to Augsburg, and finally to Ingoldstadt, where he was appointed vice-rector of the college of his order. He died in the college on 15 or 17 June 1577 (Drews, Fasti Soc. Jesu, 1723, p. 227). Wood, Dodd, and Oliver incorrectly state that he died about 1600.
He was a determined antagonist of Bishop Jewell, and published: 1. ‘A Confutation of a Sermon pronounced by M. Iuell, at Paules crosse, the second Sondaie before Easter … Anno Dñi M.D.L.X.,’ Antwerp (Giles Diest) 21 Nov. 1564, 8vo, ff. 176. The latter part of the work is entitled ‘A Challenge against the Protestants.’ The ‘Confutation’ was answered in 1579 by Dr. William Fulke [q. v.] 2. ‘A Replie against an Answer (falslie intitled) in Defence of the Truth, made by Iohn Rastell: M. of Art and Studient in Diuinite,’ Antwerp (Giles Diest), 10 March 1565, 8vo, ff. 205. 3. ‘A Copie of a Challenge, taken owt of the Confutation of M. Iuells Sermon,’ Antwerp, 1565, 8vo. 4. ‘A Treatise intitled, Beware of M. Iewell,’ Antwerp, 1566, 8vo, in three volumes or parts, the last of which is entitled ‘The third Book, declaring by examples out of ancient Councels, Fathers, and later Writers, that it is time to beware of M. Jewel.’ 5. ‘A Briefe Shew of the false Wares packt together in the named Apology of the Church of England,’ Louvain (John Fowler), 1567, 8vo. A catalogue of ‘English Popish Books,’ printed by Strype, includes Rastell's ‘Return of Untruths,’ which was answered by Jewell (Annals of the Reformation, vol. ii. App. p. 159, fol.).
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert); Bodl. Cat.; De Backer's Bibl. de la Compagnie de
