Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/292

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Mumford
286
Mun

sion, and stationed at Norwich. He was for some time rector of the 'College of the Holy Apostles,' embracing the Suffolk district. At Norwich he was seized by the parliamentary soldiers; was led round the city in his priestly vestments, amid the scoffs of the rabble, and with the sacred ornaments of the altar carried aloft on spears in a sort of triumphant procession, and was then cast into prison (Southwell, Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 380). He was subsequently removed to Great Yarmouth, but was remanded to Norwich, and after some months' imprisonment was discharged on bail. He died in England on 9 March 1665-6.

His works are:

  1. 'A Remembrance for the Living to Pray for the Dead. Made by a Father of the Soc. of Iesus,' St. Omer, 1641, 12mo; the second part and second edit, by J. M., Lond. 1661, 12mo. Reprinted in 'St. Joseph's Ascetical Library,' Lond. 1871,8vo, under the editorship of Father John Morris, S.J., who has added an appendix on 'The Heroic Act of Charity.' A Latin translation, under the title of 'Tractatus de misericordia lidelibus defunctis exhibenda,' was printed at Liege, 1647, 12mo; Cologne, 1649, 12mo; Strasburg, 1716,12mo; Vienna, 1725,16mo; Strasburg, 1762, 12mo. The work was translated into French by Father Charles Le Breton and by Father J. Brignon. Father Bouit brought out a new edit ion of Brignon's translation. A German translation appeared at Augsburg and Dillingen in 1695, and at Colmar, 1776. A criticism of Mumford's work by Thomas White or Albius, a secular priest, was published, under the title of' Devotion and Reason, wherein Modern Devotion for the Dead is brought to Solid Principles and made Rational,' Paris, 1661,12mo (Dodd, Church Hist. iii. 288).
  2. 'The Catholick Scripturist,' Ghent, 1652; 2nd edit, entitled 'The Catholic Scripturist; or the Plea of the Roman Catholics, shewing the Scriptures to hold the Roman faith in above forty of the chief Controversies now under debate,' Lond. 1686, 12mo; 3rd edit. Lond. 1687, 8vo; 4th edit. Lond. 1767, 12mo, Baltimore, 1808, 8vo, Lond. 1838 (published under the superintendence of the Catholic Institute), Lond. 1863, 8vo. It is said that Mumford wrote this book while in prison at Norwich.
  3. 'The Question of Questions, which rightly solved resolveth all our Questions in Religion. This question is, Who ought to be our Judge in all these our differences? This book answereth this question; and hence sheweth a most easy, and yet most safe way, how, among so many Religions, the most unlearned and learned may find the true Religion. By Optatus Ductor,' Ghent, 1658, 4to; Lond. 1686-7, 12mo; Lond. 1767, 12mo; Lond. 1841, 12mo; and Glasgow, 1841,12mo (revised by W. Gordon). In the 'Memoires de Trevoux (1704, p. 1041, 1st edit.) it is stated that this work was first printed at Ghent in 1654. It was translated into French by the Capuchin father, Basile de Soissons. Basile is said to have suppressed the name of the author. 'A Vindication or Defence of St. Gregory's Dialogues' is also ascribed to Mumford.

[De Backer's Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jesus, ii. 1408; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 321; Foley's Records, ii. 457, vii. 532; Jones's Popery Tracts, pp. 306, 317, 406, 462; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ix. 38; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 146.]

T. C.

MUN, THOMAS (1571–1641), economic writer, was the third son of John Mun, mercer, of St. Andrew Hubbard's in the city of London, whose father, John Mun of Hackney, appears to have held the office of provost of moneyers in the Royal Mint (Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, i. 104), and in 1562 received a grant of arms (Visitations of London and Middlesex, 1633-4). William Mun, an uncle of Thomas, and also a moneyer in the mint, died at Hackney in 1610. Thomas was baptised at St. Andrew Hubbard's, 17 June 1571. His father died in 1573 (will proved in P. C. C., Peter, 12), and his mother, Margaret (née Barwick), married in the following year Thomas Cordell, mercer, of St. Lawrence Jewry (afterwards a director of the East India Company), by whom Mun and his brothers seem to have been carefully brought up. Mun had two elder brothers: John Mun (1564-1615), a citizen and mercer of London, who died unmarried (will, P. C. C., Rudd, 66), and according to Stow's 'Survey' (1618 edit. p. 385), had a monument in Allhallows Staining Church; the other, Edward Mun, M.A. (1568-1603), was vicar of Stepney, rector of East Barnet, and sub-almoner to Queen Elizabeth (cf. Admin. Libr. Vic.-Gen. fol. 110a; Newcourt, Repert. Eccles. i. 740, 806; Hill and Frere, Memorials of Stepney Parish, 1890, pt. i. p. 33; F. C. Cass, East Barnet, pt. ii. 1892, pp. 216-19).

Thomas appears to have been early engaged in mercantile affairs in the Mediterranean, especially in Italy and the Levant. In his 'England's Treasure by Forraign Trade' (pp. 44-7) he describes as within his personal observation the growth of the port of Leghorn and the encouragement of commerce by Ferdinand I, grand duke of Tuscany (1587–1609). So great was Mun's credit that Ferdinand lent him forty thousand crowns, free of interest, for transmission to Turkey, where he was about to obtain merchandise for Italy. At p. 126 of the same work he states that