Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Howlet, John
HOWLET, JOHN (1548–1589), jesuit, was born in the county of Rutland in 1548. He entered at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1564, and graduated B.A. in 1566, becoming a fellow. He went abroad in 1570 with the permission of his college, intending to travel to Rome, but, entering the college of Douay in the same year, he was in 1571 received into the order of Jesus at Louvain. At Douay he was a contemporary of Campion, and studied theology. He afterwards taught many different subjects, chiefly at Douay. In 1587 he proceeded to Poland to assist in the Transylvanian mission, and died at Wilna on 17 Dec. 1589.
Howlet's name was well known in England because it was appended to the dedication to the queen prefaced to the tract by Parsons entitled, 'A Brief Discours contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to go to Church. Written by a learned and vertuous man to a frend of his in England, and Dedicated by J. H. to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie,' Douay (really printed at London), 1580.
[Boase's Reg. of Exeter, pp. 45, 181, 207; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 184; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 67; Hearne's Coll., Oxf. Hist. Soc., 4 Sept. 1705; Reg. Univ. Oxon., (Oxf. Hist. Soc.),vol. ii. pt. ii.p.20; Henr. Morus, Hist. Provinciæ Anglicanæ Societatis Jesu, i. xv; Oliver's Biog. of the Members of the Soc. of Jesus, p.119; Southwell's Bibl. Script. Soc. Jesu, ed. Rome, 1676, p. 461; Foley's Records of the Engl. Province, i. 376; Knox's Douay Diaries, pp. 4, 24; Brit. Mus. Cat.]