Father John Gerard (1564 - 1637)

John Gerard (4 October 1564 – 27 July 1637) was an English Jesuit priest who operated covertly in England during the Elizabethan era, during which the Catholic Church was subject to persecution. He was the second son of Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn, in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. Gerard notably not only successfully hid from the English authorities for eight years before his capture but also endured extensive torture, escaped from the Tower of London, recovered and continued with his covert mission. After his escape to the Continent, he was instructed by his Jesuit superiors to write a book about his life in Latin. It is a rare first-hand account of the dangerous cloak-and-dagger world of a Catholic priest in Elizabethan England.