Archpriest. Archpriest was the title given to the superiors who were appointed by the pope to govern the secular priests sent into England from the foreign seminaries during the period 1598-1621. On the death of Cardinal Allen, in 1594, the missionary priests were left without a head. Dissensions had already sprung up between the secular clergy and the Jesuits. The need of some superior was evident. Some wished for the ordinary government of bishops. The Jesuits desired to keep the control of affairs in their own hands.
Through the influence of Father Parsons, Clement VIII. commissioned Cardinal Cajetan, called the Protector of England, to appoint George Blackwell archpriest, with jurisdiction over the secular clergy of both England and Scotland (March 1598). The archpriest was to have twelve assistants, but among other instructions given to him was an order that in all matters of importance he should consult the superior of the Jesuits in England, at that time Father Garnet. It is said that Parsons's object in thus placing the direction of British Catholics in the hands of one man subservient to the Jesuits, was the better to further the political projects of his own or the Spanish party in view of the succession to the crown. The leading secular clergy protested against the novel appointment as irregular in its institution, made upon false and fraudulent information, and oppressive in its action. They finally (November 1600) drew up a formal appeal, signed by thirty-three priests, and, secretly aided by the queen and council, sent four of their number to represent their cause at Rome. Some of the grievances complained of were at length redressed, and the archpriest's abuse of power and the influence of the Jesuits controlled, but the form of government was retained. Blackwell was deprived in 1608 for taking, and persuading others to take, the oath of allegiance, which had been condemned by Urban V. He died in a London prison five years afterwards.
George Birket or Birkhead, who was appointed in Blackwell's place in 1608, died in 1614. The third and last archpriest was Dr William Harrison, who ruled the clergy in this capacity till his death in 1621. Harrison had himself urged upon Rome the appointment of bishops, while the Jesuits in their turn now sought the aid of the government in opposing it. In 1623 William Bishop, the chief antagonist of Blackwell, and a leader of the appellants, was made titular Bishop of Chalcedon, and vicar-apostolic of England and Scotland.
See Jesuits and Seculars in the Reign of Elizabeth (1889), and The Archpriest Controversy (1899), both by the present writer.