them, threatening death if they returned. They were then carried across the Channel and set ashore in Flanders. Return to the Continent, Return to England and martyrdom Garnet now went to his old school at Saint Omer, then to Brussels to see the superior of the Jesuits, Baldwin, his companion in the adventures of 1595. Father Baldwin sent him to the English Jesuit novitiate, Saint John's, Leuven, in which he was the first novice to be received. In September 1607, he was sent back to England, but was arrested six weeks later by an apostate priest called Rouse. This was the time of King James' controversy with Cardinal Bellarmine about the Oath of Allegiance. Garnet was offered his life if he would take the oath, but he steadfastly refused, and was executed at Tyburn at the age of 32, protesting that he was "the happiest man this day alive". His relics, which were preserved at Saint Omer, were lost during the French Revolution. St. Thomas Garnet's Independent School in Boscombe, Bournemouth, which closed in 2020, was dedicated to the saint at its foundation. References Bibliography Pollen, "Protomartyr of Stonyhurst College" in Stonyhurst Magazine (1889), 334-82 Blackfan, Annales Coll. S. Albani, Vallesoleti, ed. POLLEN (1899), 57, 84 CAmm in The Month (Aug., 1898), 164-77 Yepez, Persecucion de Inglaterra (Madrid, 1599), 820-30 Foley, Records S.J., II, 475–505. External links Saint Thomas Garnet St Thomas Garnets School Bournemouth Notes Also spelled Robert Parsons Attribution Jesuit saints 1570s births 1608 deaths English saints English Roman Catholic saints 16th-century English Jesuits 17th-century English Jesuits Forty Martyrs of England and Wales People from Southwark Jesuits from London People educated at The College of Richard Collyer People educated at Stonyhurst College 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 17th-century Christian saints Executed people from London People executed by Stuart England