or Persons (Robert), an eminent writer of the church of Rome, was born at Nether-Stowey, near Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, in 1546, and educated at Balliol college, Oxford, where he distinguished himself as a zealous Protestant and an acute dis- Parsons, disputant; but being charged by the society with incontinency and embezzling the college money, he went to Flanders, and declared himself a Catholic. After travelling to several other places, he effected the establishment of the English seminary at Rome, and procured father Allen to be chosen rector of it. He himself was appointed the head of the mission to England, in order to dethrone Queen Elizabeth, and if possible extirpate the Protestant religion. He accordingly came over to this kingdom in 1580, and took some bold steps towards accomplishing his purpose, in which he concealed himself with great art, travelling about the country to gentlemen's houses, disguised in the habit sometimes of a soldier, sometimes of a gentleman, and at other times like a minister or an apparitor; but father Campian being seized and committed to prison, our author escaped out of England for fear of the same fate, and went to Rome, where he was made rector of the English seminary. He had long entertained the most languishing hopes of converting to the Popish faith the young king of Scots, which he considered as the best and most effectual means of bringing over his subjects to the same religious principles; but finding it impossible to succeed in his design, he published in 1594 his celebrated book, under the signed name of Doleman, in order to overthrow, so far as lay in his power, the title of that prince to the crown of England. He died at Rome in 1610, and was buried in the chapel of the English college. Besides the book already mentioned, he wrote, 1. A Defence of the Catholic Hierarchy. 2. The Liturgy of the Sacrament of the Mass. 3. A Memorial for the Reformation; and several other tracts.