Bristow, Richard

, an eminent Roman catholic priest and writer in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was born at Worcester, in 1538. In 1555 he was entered of Exeter college, Oxford, according to Pits, which Wood doubts; but he took his degree of B. A. in I 559, and M. A. in 1562, at which last time he was a member of Christ church. He and the celebrated Campian were so esteemed for their talents, as to be selected to entertain queen Elizabeth with a public disputation in 1566. Bristow was afterwards, in July 1567, made a fellow of Exeter college, by the interest of sir William Petre, who had founded some fellowships in that college, and who would have promoted him further, had he not laid himself open to the suspicion of holding popish tenets; and this appeared more plainly by his quitting the university on carvlinal Alan’s invitation. He went then to Doway, and after prosecuting his theological studies in that academy, was admitted to his doctor’s degree in 1579, and, says his biographer, was Alan’s “right hand upon all occasions.” He was made prefect of studies, lectured on the scriptures, and in the absence of Alan acted as regent of the college. His intense studies, however, injured a constitution originally very weak, and after a journey to Spa, which had very little effect, he was recommended to try his native air. On his return to England, he resided for a very short time with a Mr. Bellamy, a gentleman of fortune, at Harrow on the Hill, where he died Oct. 18, 1581. The popish historians concur in expressing the loss their cause suffered by his death, he being | teemed “an Alan in prudence, a Stapleton in acuteness, a Campian in eloquence, a Wright in theology, and a Martin in languages.” He wrote, 1. “Dr. Bristow’s motives,” Antwerp, 1574, 1599, 8vo, translated afterwards into Latin, by Dr. Worthington, Doway, 1608, 4to. 2. “A Reply to William Fulk (his ablest antagonist), in defence of Dr. Allen (Alan’s) articles, and book of purgatory,” Louvain, 1580, 4to. 3. “Fifty-one demands, to be proposed by catholics to heretics,” London, 1592, 4to. 4. “Veritates Aurese S. R. Ecclesiae,” 1616. 5. “Tabula in summam theologicam S. Thomse Aquinatis,” 1579. He wrote also “An Apology in defence of Alan and himself,” and notes upon the Rheims Testament. ¹