Cuthbert Mayne - Catholic Conversion

Catholic Conversion

At Oxford, Mayne met Edmund Campion and other Catholics, such as Gregory Martin, Humphrey Ely, Henry Shaw, Thomas Bramston, Henry Holland, Jonas Meredith, Roland Russell, and William Wiggs. At some point Mayne, too, became a Catholic. Late in 1570, a letter addressed to him from Gregory Martin fell into the hands of the Bishop of London, and officers arrested him and the others mentioned in the letter. Being warned off by Thomas Ford, Mayne evaded arrest by going to Cornwall and then, in 1573, to the English College at Douai.

Mayne was ordained a priest at Douai in 1575 and on 7 February in the following year he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Theology of Douai University. Shortly afterwards, on 24 April 1576, he left for the English mission in the company of another priest, John Payne. He soon took up his abode with Francis Tregian, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall.

The few missionaries who arrived from Douai, once their existence was learned by agents of Elizabeth I's government, were then looked upon as a large force of papal agents meant to overthrow the Queen.The authorities began a systematic search in June 1576, when the Bishop of Exeter William Broadbridge came to the area in Cornwall. High sheriff Sir Richard Grenville, a noted anti-Catholic officer, conducted a raid on Tregian's house on 8 June 1577, during which the crown officers "bounced and beat at the door" to Mayne's chamber. On gaining entry, Grenville discovered a Catholic devotional article, an Agnus Dei around Mayne's neck, and took him into custody along with his books and papers. Tregian suffered imprisonment and loss of possessions for harbouring a Roman Catholic priest.