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318 CASSIAN OF STANLEY his father's faith that eventually brought him to France. Mere Angé~ lique Arnauld, the Abbess of Port-Royal, gives this account of him: « II étoit vraiment prudent et sage, il étoit anglois et de grande maison et il avoit quitté son pays pour la religion catholique. Un de ses amis ayant été surprís entandant la messe et prís prisonníer, cela luí fit peur de sorte qu'il s'enfuít et vínt a París et peu de temps n'ayant encore que víngt ans, íl se fit capucin » 15 • Happy to have escaped the attention of the authorities in Eng– land, William Barlow entered the Capuchin novitiate in the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1587, encouraged in hís resolve by his com– patriot and fellow-exile, Benet of Canfield, who had himself joined the Capuchins a short time previously 16 • From that time he was to be known as Archangel of Pembroke. His companions in the novitiate were a distinguished band. They included, besides Benet of Canfield, three young French noblemen whose coming to the Capuchins had been the topic of the day in Paris. These three were known in the friary as Freres Ange, Léonard and Honoré, but to the world at large better recognized respectively as Henri de Joyeuse, comte de Bouchage, the former 'mignon' of Henri III and now to become the life-long friend of the young novice from Wales; Jacques Favre, marquis de Kerguiffinan, and Charles Bochard de Champigny 17 • For Archangel of Pembroke, as for these companions of his in the novi- · tiate, it was the beginning of a remarkable career. Little is known of his early days as a friar, but soon after his ordination he was in Belgium assisting there in the training of nov– ices. That was in May 1592 and he appears to have remained there until at least 1594 18 • The following year he was back again in his province when he was appointed Guardian and Novice-master at 1 s UBALD o'ALENºON, O.F.M.Cap., Les Pre.res Mineurs Capucins et les débuts de la réforme il Port-Royal des Champs (1609-1626), ín Etudes Franc. 24(1910) 51-52. In another account, Mere Angélíque stated that « ce jeune seigneur trés catholique ne pouvant souffrir la rigeur des persécutions qu'on exerºoit, ni le deffaut d'exercice de notre Religíon résolut de venir· en France... " (cf. UBALD o'ALENºON, art. cit., 54). Hl This is the year given by Philippe de París, O.F.M.Cap., in his Chronologie histori– que, Bibl. Nationale, ms. Fonds franr;. 25044, p.44. and by Maurice d'Epernay, O.F.M.Cap., in Abrégé des Annales des Capucins de la Province de París, Bibl. Nationale, París, ms. Fonds franc;. 5859, f.53. Godefroy de París (op. cit., 190) gives the date of entry to the Capu– chins as 1588. This detail has been discussed by Optat de Veghel (op. cit., 81) and by Hildebrand [van Hooglede], O.F.M.Cap., De Kapucijnen in de Nederlanden en het Prinsbisdom Luik. Deel I: De tweetalige Neder/andsche Provincie, 1585-1616, Antwerpen 1945, 131 n.3. These two iatter writers accept 1587 as the year of entrance, and the weight of evidence seems to be on their side. 1 7 G0DEFR0Y DE PARIS, op. cit. II, 451; CUTHBERT [0F BRIGHT0N], O.F.M.Cap., The Capu– chins. A contribution to the history of the Counter-Reformation I, London 1928, 22lss. 1s Liber Professionum ab anno 1588 usque 1610, Archivum Capuccinorum Belgii, Sectio I, ms. 8747, p.7, 12, 16, 17, 19; HILDEBRAND [VAN H00GLEDE], De Gebroeders Forbes en hun Biograaf,. in Franc.Leven. 25(1942) 100 n.4 (cf. Idem, op. cit., loco cit.).