Thomas Lister (Jesuit)
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Thomas Lister (b. in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, about 1559; d. in England, probably before 1628) was an
English Jesuit writer.

Life

He was the son of Christopher Lister, of Midhope, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. He entered Douai College, in 1576. Having occasion to return to England, he was seized and imprisoned. He, however, obtained his release, and in 1579 was received into the English College, Rome. There, three years later, he joined the Society of Jesus in February, 1582-3.

He graduated in Divinity at Pont-à-Mousson
Pont-à-Mousson
Pont-à-Mousson is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.Population : 14,592 . It is an industrial town , situated on the Moselle River...

 in 1592. In 1596 he went on to the English mission, but was arrested in 1598 and endured a long incarceration. Difficulties had broken out among the English Catholic clergy, owing to the refusal of certain among them to recognize the authority of the newly appointed archpriest
Archpriest
An archpriest is a priest with supervisory duties over a number of parishes. The term is most often used in Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholic Churches, although it may be used in the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church instead of dean or vicar forane.In the 16th and 17th centuries, during...

, Dr. George Blackwell
George Blackwell
Father George Blackwell was Roman Catholic Archpriest of England from 1597 to 1608.-Biography:Blackwell was born in Middlesex, England about 1545, perhaps the son of the pewterer Thomas Blackwell. He was admitted as a scholar to Trinity College, Oxford on 27 May 1562...

.

Lister was at this point consulted by one of the priests as to the conduct of those who refused obedience. His reply took the form of a small treatise entitled Adversus factiosos in ecclesia, in which their conduct was vigorously censured. They are declared to have ipso facto have fallen into schism, and to have incurred excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...

 and irregularity. It is doubtful whether this tractate was published; but it was widely circulated in manuscript, and proved divisive. To the request of the clergy that he would prohibit it, Blackwell replied curtly (April, 1957):
"Your request is that we should call in the treatise against your schism; and this is unreasonable, because the medicine ought not to be removed until the sore be thoroughly cured. If it grieve you, I am not grieved thereat."


His conduct in regard to Lister's tract formed the first of the six grounds on which was based the "Appeal of thirty-three clergymen", against his administration. The appellants obtained a favourable hearing at Rome. Lister's tract was suppressed by papal Brief (May, 1601), and Blackwell rebuked for his unreasonable conduct.

Lister seems to have resided continuously in England. His death probably occurred shortly before 1628. The treatise "Adversus factiosos" is incorporated into Christopher Bagshaw
Christopher Bagshaw
Christopher Bagshaw was an English academic and Roman Catholic priest.-Life:He came from a Derbyshire family. He graduated B.A. on 12 July 1572, at Balliol College, Oxford, and in the same year was elected probationer fellow of his college. Before going to Oxford he matriculated in 1566 at St...

's "Relatio compendium turbarum"; a portion of it is printed in Law's work (cited below).
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