William Clifford

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

(Alias Mansell), divine, d. 30 April, 1670; he was the son of Henry Clifford, by his wife Elizabeth Thimelby, who as a widow joined the English Augustinian nuns at Louvain, and died, aged about seventy-seven, 3 September, 1642. Through humility Clifford never asserted his right to the Barony of Cumberland. After education and ordination at Douai, he came on the English mission. As vice-president, he helped the English College at Lisbon through difficult times, and became superior of Tournay College (Paris), assigned by Cardinal Richelieu to the English clergy. He evaded being made bishop in 1660, declined in 1670 the presidency of Douai, and closed his life in the Hopital des Incurables in Paris. Clifford's works are: "Christian Rules proposed to a vertuous Soule" (Paris, 1615), dedicated to Mrs Ursula Clifford; "The Spirituall Combat", translated by R.R. (Paris, 1656), dedicated to Abbot Montague; "Little Manual of Poore Man's Dayly Devotion" (2nd edition, Paris, 1670), often reprinted; "Observations upon Kings' Reigns since the Conquest" (MS.); "Collections concerning Chief Points of Controversy" (MS.)

Little Manual, 5th ed., preface; Dodd, Church History, III, 297; Gillow, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Catholics, I, 514, s.v.; Idem, Lisbon College, 9 and 189; Cooper in Dict. Of Nat. Biog., s.v.; Chronicle of St. Monica's, Louvain (Edinburgh, 1904), I, 127; Kirk, Biographies (London, 1908), s.v.

PATRICK RYAN