Like his contemporary William Allen and Reginald Pole before him, Robert Parsons was an English Catholic clergyman of considerable influence both at home and abroad. He was a controversial figure in literature, politics, and within the Church itself.

Parsons was a theologian and faculty member at Oxford who took the oath of supremacy on multiple occasions, but resigned his post amidst a series of unclear circumstances in 1574. Shortly after, he moved to the continent where he joined the Catholic Church. Several years later, Parsons was sent from the College at Rome to work as a missionary, and accompanied Saint Edmund Campion to England in 1580. Operating clandestinely, he set up a number of “magical” printing presses capable of publishing replies on short notice to the Protestant literature of the day. A man of letters, Parsons was a rabid controversialist who authored numerous works of Catholic apology and Protestant scandalization. After Campion was arrested, tortured, and executed, and the presses seized, Parsons again fled to Europe. There he helped to further develop the network of English colleges in France, serving as rector in Rome and eventually founding the College at St. Omer.