Life

He was one of the several sons of Philip Pugh of Penrhyn

Penrhyn Bay

Penrhyn Bay is a small town on the north Wales coast, in Conwy county borough, within the parish or community of Llandudno, and part of the ecclesiastical parish of Llanrhos. It is a prosperous village with a cluster of local shops, a pub, a parish church and a modern medical centre with doctors'...

, in the parish of Eglwys-Ross, Carnarvonshire. His elder brother, Richard, born in 1607, entered the English College at Valladolid

Valladolid

Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

 under the alias of Bartholomew Phillips in 1626, was ordained there in 1633, entered the Society of Jesus, and died on the mission in Wales about 1645. A younger brother, John, born 1620, who also used the alias of Phillips, was ordained priest at the English College at Rome, but died in 1645 before he left the college.

Robert Pugh was educated at the College of St. Omer, under the name of Phillips. He entered the Society of Jesus, but in 1645 left it. Anthony à Wood says that he was dismissed the Society for accompanying the royalist army of the First English Civil War

First English Civil War

The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...

 without the consent of his superiors. After its defeat he studied and became doctor of civil and canon law, probably at the University of Paris.

In 1655 the pope made him protonotarius apostolicus and he became one of Queen Henrietta Maria's chaplains. At this period, and despite his dismissal from the Society of Jesus, he was its strenuous defender. He was the most prominent opponent of Thomas White

Thomas White (scholar)

Thomas White was an English Roman Catholic priest and scholar, known as a theologian, censured by the Inquisition, and also as a philosopher contributing to scientific and political debates.-Life:...

 and "Blackloism", in other words appeasement of the regime of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

. He also wrote against the authority claimed by the Old Chapter

Old Chapter

The Old Chapter was the body in effective control of the Roman Catholic Church in England, from 1623 to 1850 .-Origin:...

. He had a better Latin style than Thomas White alias Blacklow, but had less ecclesiastical learning.

After the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 of 1660 he resided with the William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis

William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis

William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, PC was an English nobleman.He succeeded his father, the 2nd Baron Powis, as 3rd Baron Powis in 1667, and was created Earl of Powis in 1674 by King Charles II and Viscount Montgomery, of the Town of Montgomery, and Marquess of Powis in 1687 by King James II,...

, sometimes in London, and more frequently at Redcastle, in Wales. During the persecution of Catholics at the time of the Popish Plot

Popish Plot

The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...

, whilst paying a visit to some of the Catholic gentry confined in Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...

, he was betrayed, and himself detained a prisoner. He died of disease in Newgate on January 22, 1679, aged 69. He was interred in the burial-ground attached to Christ Church, near Newgate.

Henry Foley

Henry Foley

Brother Henry Foley, S.J., was an English Jesuit Roman Catholic church historian.-Biography:He was born at Astley in Worcestershire, England on 9 August 1811. His father was the Protestant curate in charge at Astley...

 rather confuses him with the Scottish Oratorian, Fr. Robert Phillip.

Works

• De retinenda cleri Anglicani in sedem Apostolicam observantia. Parisiis, 1659, 4to.
• Elenchus Elenchi ; sive Animadversiones in Georgii Batei, Cromwelli parricida: aliquando protomedici, Elenchum motuum nuperorum in Anglia. Parisiis, 1664, 8vo.
• An anonymous writer attributed to his pen Lord Castlemain's " Catholic Apology," 1666.
• Of the several states and governments that have been in England since 1642, MS. in Lord Castlemain's possession in Wood's time.
• Amuletum Excantationis. (?), 1670, 8vo, in rejoinder to White's "Monumetham."
• Blacklo's Cabal, discovered in several of their Letters, clearly expressing designs inhuman against Regulars, unjust against the Laity, schismatical against the Pope, cruel against orthodox Clergymen, and owning the nullity of the chapter, their opposition to Episcopal Authority. Second Edition, s.l., 1680, 4to, pp. 126, vide under Hen. Holden, vol. iii. 338, No. 14.
• A Latin ode which Wood says he had seen.
• Barthoniensium et Aquisgranensium Thermarum Comparatio, rebus adjunctis illustratis. Lond. 1676, 12mo, written by way of Epistle to his patron Lord Castlemain, dated " Bathe, 7 Kal. Aug. 1675."

Source

• Public domain text by Joseph Gillow
  Joseph Gillow
  Joseph Gillow was an English Roman Catholic antiquary and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics"....
  
  from A literary and biographical history, or bibliographical dictionary, of the English Catholics from the breach with Rome, in 1534, to the present time (1885), online text.