Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Owen, Thomas (1557-1618)
OWEN, THOMAS (1557–1618), jesuit, born in Hampshire in 1567, studied humanities at Douay, and law at Paris, and entered the Society of Jesus at Lyons in 1579. Afterwards he taught rhetoric and philosophy at Tournon, where he became prefect of studies and spiritual director. Eventually he was summoned to Rome, and appointed, first, confessor, and then minister in the English College. Father Robert Parsons [q. v.], on his deathbed in 1610, made a request to the father-general, Claudius Aquaviva, that Owen might succeed him in the office of rector of the college and prefect of the English mission. The recommendation was adopted, and Owen held those offices until his death on 6 Dec. 1618. A status of the English College at Rome for 1613 says that Thomas Owen and his brother Cyprian were of a very ancient catholic house. Owen was the author of the following translations from the French: 1. 'A Letter of a Catholike Man beyond the Seas, written to his Friend in England, inclvding another of Peter Coton, Priest, of the Society of Iesus, to the Queene Regent of France . . . Tovching the imputation of the death of Henry the IHI, late K. of France, to Priests, Iesuites, or Catholicke Doctrine' [St. Omer], 1610, 8vo. The 'Catholike Man' subscribes himself T. A. — Audoenus, being the latinised form of Owen. 2. 'The Copie of a Letter sent from Paris to the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Iesus who live in England. Contayning an Answere to the Calumniations of Anti-Coton against the same Society in generall, and Fa. Coton in particuler [St. Omer], 1611, 4to. 3. 'Cardinal Perron's Letter to Isaac Casaubon,' St. Omer, 1612.
[De Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus, ii. 1663; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 417; Douay Diaries, p. 435; Foley's Records, vi. 531, 777, vii. 562; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 153; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 764.]