Robert Southwell

Robert Southwell (1561-1595) was an English Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order, an author of Christian poetry, and a clandestine missionary in Elizabethan England. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1592 and was later convicted of high treason for refusing to repudiate the authority of the Holy See. He was hanged in Tyburn in 1595 and was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970. Although his work is often ignored in the canon, he is identified as a key influence on metaphysical poetry and the future development of English literature.