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don, at Swithin Wells's house in Gray's Inn Fields,
where Ven. Edmund Gennings was celebrating Mass.
At his execution he acknowledged Elizabeth as his
lawful queen, whom he would defend to the best of
his power against aU her enemies, and he prayed for
her and the whole realm; but said that he would
rather forfeit a thousand lives than deny or fight
against his rehgion. By the orders of Sir Walter
Raleigh, he was allowed to hang till he was dead, and
the sentence was carried out upon his body.
Venerable John Mason was a servant to Mr. Owen of Oxfordshire. When Topeliffe endeavoured to obtain entry into the room where Father Gennings was saying Mass, Mason seized him, and in the struggle both fell down the stairs together. Mason was therefore cited as an aider and abettor of priests and condemned accordingly.
At the same time suffered another layman. Vener- able Brian Lacey, cousin and companion of Venerable Montford Scott, with whom he was apprehended in 1.591. Lacey was committed to Bridewell where he was cruelly tortured by Topeliffe in the vain endeav- our to ehcit at whose houses he had been with Scott. He was arraigned before the lord mayor at the Old Bailey and condemned to be hanged for aiding and abetting priests. Five j'cars previously Lacey had suffered imprisonment in Newgate for rehgion, and he was then three times examined by Justice Young. Information against him as a distributor and dis- penser of letters to Cathohcs and against Montford Scott had been given by his own brother, Richard Lacey, gentleman, of Brockdish, Norfolk.
Kirk, Douay Diaries: Pollen, Acts of Eng. Martyrs (London, 1891); Idem in Cath. Record .Sue. 11; V; Morris, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers. Ill (London, 1906-08); Idem, Life of Gerard (London, 1881); Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests; Foley, Records of the English Province of the Soc. of Jesus, VI.
J. L. Whitfield.
White, rcre Gwyn, Richard, Venerable, martyr, b. at Llanilloes, Montgomeryshire, about 1537; exe- cuted at Wrexham, lienbighshire, 15 Oct., 1584. After a brief stay at Oxford he studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, till about 1562, when he became a schoolmaster, first at Overton in Flintshire, then at Wrexham and other places, acquiring considerable reputation as a Welsh scholar. He had six children by his wife Catherine, three of whom survived him. For a time he conformed in religion, but was recon- ciled to the Catholic Church at the first coming of the seminary priests to Wales. Owing to his recusiincy he was arrested more than once, and in 1579 he was a prisoner in Ruthin gaol, where he was offered liberty if he would conform. In 1580 he was transferred to Wrexham, where he suffered much persecution, being forcibly carried to the Protestant service, and being frequently brought to the bar at different assizes to undergo opprobrious treatment, but never obtaining his liberty. In May, 1.583, he was removed to the Council of the Marches, and later in the year suffered torture at Bewdlcy and Bridgenorth before being sent back to Wrexham. There he lay a prisoner till the .\utumii Assizes, when he was brought to trial on 9 Oct., ;iiid found guilty of treason and sentenced on the following ihiy. Again his life was offenxi him on condition th:it he acknowledged the queen as .supreme head of the Church. His wife consoled and encour- aged him to the last. Five carols and a funeral ode composed by the m:irt\T in Welsh have recently been discovered and published.
An EnKlish contemporary biogrnphv printed in the Rambler, N. S., Ill (London, lS6n); Bridowater, Concertatio Ecclesire (Treves. 1588), (iivingftcontompornr\* Latin account; Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests (London, 1741-42); Thomas in Diet. Nat. Biog., following the Rambler account; Cooper, Atheme Cantabrigienses; Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs in Cath. Record Society, V, 90-99; Wainewrioht in Lines of the English Martyrs, III (London, 1912).
Edwin BruTON.
White, Robert, English composer, b. about 1.530;
d. Nov., 1574; was educated by his father, and gradu-
ated Mus. D., at Cambridge University, 13 Dec,
1560. In March, 1561, he succeeded Dr. Tye as
organist and master of the choristers at Ely cathedral,
continuing in that office tiU 1566. He accepted a
similar post at Chester cathedral in 1566, and took
part in the Whitsuntide pageants during the years
1567-69. Such was his repute as a choir trainer that
in 1570 he was appointed organist and master of the
choristers of Westminster Abbey. Though an avowed
Cathohc he retained his post at Westminster Abbey
from 1570 till his death. It is worth recording that
during the same period, under Elizabeth, the musical
services of the Chapel Royal, Westminster Abbey, and
St. Paul's Cathedral were directed by three Catholics,
namely Farrant, White, and Westcott. White made
his will on 5 Nov., 1574, and in it he describes his
father Robert White as still living. He left each of
the choristers four pence. The high estimation in
which he was held by his contemporaries may be
judged by the distich which a pupil (in 1.581) inscribed
in the MS. score of White's "Lamentations":
"Non ita mocsta sonat plangentis verba prophetae
Quam sonat authoris musica mocsta mei."
Fortunately quite a large number of White's com-
positions have survived, and of these, his Latin
motets are sufficient to place him in the front rank of
English composers of the Elizabethan epoch. His
contrapuntal writing is very fine, though stilted.
However, his "Lamentations", set for five voices,
have a flavour far in advance of his period, as also his
motet "Peccatum peccavit Jerusalem" and "Regina
Coeli ". It is to be observed that he wrote his English
anthems ex officio, but his Latin services reveal the
full genius of White, and give him a place with Tallis,
Byrd, Shepherd, and Taverner. Strange to say,
though he stood so high among mid-sixteenth-century
musicians, his compositions were almost utterly
neglected till unearthed by Dr. Burney. In recent
years he has come into his own, thanks to the zeal of
Mr. .-^rkwright. Dr. Terry, and others. Dr. Ernest
Walker regards White "fairly to be reckoned — even
remembering that Palestrina and Lassus were con-
temporaries — as among the very greatest European
composers of this time".
Burnet, Gen. Hist, of Music (4 vols., London. 1776-89); Walker, A Hist, of Music in England (London, 1907); Grove, Diet, of Music and Musicians, V (London. 1910).
W. H. Grattan-Flood.
White, Stephen, antiquarian and polyhistor; b. at Clonmel, Ireland, in 1574; d. in Galway, 1646. He belonged to a family devoted to religion and educa- tion. In 1592 Trinity College, Dublin, was founded, and S. White (in all probability Stephen White) was one of the few .students named in the chiu-ter. Un- willing to take the oath of suprenuicv, he left his native land and entered the Irish College at Salamanca, Spain, where in 1596 he joined the Society of Jesus, and taught from 1602 to 1606. Tlie domestic record says of him "plurimum profecit in litteris". This skill he employed as one of the two principal collab- orators on William Bathe's systemiitic hinguage method called "Janua linguanmi", a work on which Comenius twenty years later ba-sed liis celebrated "Janua linguanmi re.serata". In 1606 he went to Germany and lectured on theology at Ingolstadt, at Dillingen, and other places. He applied himself assiduously to the study of history antl w.as generally reputed to be one of the most learned men of his lime in Europe. I'.ssher calls him "a man profoimdly verseti in the ancient records, not of Ireland alone, but of other eotmtries". His chief interest was in Irish history. To him is due the honour of fixing the historic Label "Scotia" where it belongs — to Ireland. He called attention to the rich tresusures of Irish literature preserved in the monasteries and libraries of
