Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/149

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

THE EXETER LINE 125

brief but by no means uneventful career. He spent most of his youth in travelling on the Continent, and was accompanied on his first tour by his tutor, John Molle. On their arrival in Rome in 1608, Molle, who had rendered himself obnoxious to the Papal authorities by translating portions of Duplessis-Mornay into English, and had been persuaded by his pupil, against his own better judgment, to cross the Alps, was arrested by the Inquisition and thrown into prison. To all appeals for his release the Pope replied " with assurances that he should be well treated and efforts made for his conversion ;" and in spite of the efforts of Lord Salisbury and others for his release, the unfortunate man was kept in prison for thirty years until his death at the age of eighty. 1

Roos himself, who already felt leanings towards Catholicism, was well received and entertained in Rome, and afterwards at Venice, and he then proceeded, " both out of curiosity and because he is very rich," to visit the Courts of Vienna, Munich, Buda-Pesth, and Prague. 2 We hear of him next at Madrid, where he intended to remain a year in order to learn the language, had not his great-uncle, Lord Salisbury, expressed a wish that

to the title was afterwards disputed by the Earl of Rutland, but was confirmed in his favour. On his death without issue it reverted to the Manners family.

1 Court and Times of James I., I. 77 ; Cal. S. P. Dom., October 2nd, 1608 ; January 3rd, 1610; Cal. S. P. Venetian, September 6th, 1608.

2 See Cal. S. P. Venetian, March aoth, 1609. Roos sent home from Rome a collection of statues, which he presented to the Earl of Arundel.

�� �