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322 CASSIAN OF STANLEY with this summary and very selective account of his apostolate lest we pass too far beyond the province of this paper and we must come, at last, to the incident in his career that gives this essay its title. Fr. Archangel and Grotius Among the exiles in Paris in the year 1624 was Hiug van Groot, better known as Grotius, the 'Father of International Law'. Sorne three years earlier, this renowned jurist, a man, seemingly, of all– embracing learning and, probably, the ablest Dutchman of his day, had made his famous escape from prison at Loevestein. He had, then, served but a few years of the life sentence he had received for his opposition to Prince Maurice. On his first visit to France as a youth he had been féted; in 1621, he had barely arrived there with his life. All his goods had been confiscated, and he depended, mainly, on a pension granted him by Louis XIII. This pension was given at irregular intervals and in decreasing amounts. The King's lack of openhandedness arose, it was said, because Grotius was not prepared to become a Catholic. Indeed, it was held in later years that as many religions contended for Grotius as cities for Homer 32 • Be that as it may, an attempt was certainly made in the years 1623 and 1624 to win Grotius over to Catholicism. The director of the efforts made was the Papal Nuncio in Brussels, Giovanni-Francesco Guidi di Bagno, then in the middle of a long and distinguished career 33 • It was by no means the Nuncio's only essay to convert a notable personality. Later, a more distinguished figure was to be the object of his zealous attentions, no less a person, in fact, than Charles I of England 34 • However, in 1623 and the following year it was Grotius who, in this respect, occupied his mind. When the project of the conversion of Grotius was first definitely mooted it is difficult to determine. Religion was a constant preoccu– pation of Grotius, and especially was he concerned with the problem of Christian reunion. Certainly efforts had been made before October 1623 by di Bagno to interest the Dutchman in the Catholic faith as a letter from Hemelarius to the Nuncio makes clear 35 • This Hemela- P. Archange de Pembroc, qui avait été vingt ans maítre des novices » (H. BREMOND, Histoire Zittéraire du sentiment religieux en France II, Paris 1916, 420-421). 32 R.W. LEE, Hugo Grotius (Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. XVI), London 1930, 33-36; Encyclopaedia Britannica X, London 1962, 908; Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Lonclon 1961, 577. " 3 L. C:-.:ocKAERT, Giovmmi-Francesco Guic/i di Bagno, Nuntius te Brussel (1621-1627). Enige aspecten van zijn opdraclzt en van persoonlijkheid, Brussel-Rome, 1956. "' Ph. HuGHES, The Conversion of Charles I, in The Clergy Revieiv 8(1934) 118ss; G. AL– BJ0:-1, Charles I and the Court of Rome. A stucly in 17th Century Diplomacy, Lonclon 1935, 117ss. 3 5 B. DE MEESTER, Correspondance du Nance Giovanni-Francesco Guidi di Bagno (1621- 1627) (Analecta Vaticano-Belgica, Nonciature ele Flanclre, V), Bruxelles-Rome 1938, 418 n.2.