Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heywood, Ellis
HEYWOOD, ELLIS or ELIZÆUS (1530–1578), jesuit, eldest son of John Heywood [q. v.], brother of Jasper Heywood [q. v.], and grandnephew, through his mother (Eliza Rastell), of Sir Thomas More [q. v.], was born in London in 1530, and was ‘educated in juvenile learning’ there. Thence he was sent to Oxford, and in 1548 was elected a fellow of All Souls' College. He applied himself to the study of law, and was admitted to the degree of B.C.L. on 18 July 1552 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 218). Being opposed to the doctrines of the reformers, he withdrew to the continent, travelled in France and Italy, where he became secretary to Cardinal Pole. He does not appear, however, to have accompanied the cardinal to England in Mary's reign, for in 1556 he was residing in Florence. In 1565 his uncle William Rastell [q. v.] left him the estate of North Mimms, formerly owned by his grand-uncle, Sir Thomas More. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1566, probably at Dillengen in Bavaria, and afterwards became spiritual father and preacher in the professed house of the society at Antwerp. When the college was attacked by a mob of fanatics, and the community expelled, he fled to Louvain, where he died on 2 Oct. (O.S.) 1578.
His only known work is an extremely rare book, entitled ‘Il Moro d'Heliseo Heiuodo Inglese,’ Florence, 1556, 8vo, lib. ii. pp. 180, with dedication to Cardinal Pole. It is a fictitious dialogue, representing his granduncle Sir Thomas More's conversations with the learned men of his time. Heywood is said to have written other works, printed abroad.
[MS. Addit. 24488, pp. 1, 501; De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, ii. 75; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 146; Foley's Records, i. 388 n., vii. 349; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1060; More's Hist. Missionis Anglicanæ Soc. Jesu, p. 23; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 115; Sacchini's Historiæ Soc. Jesu, lib. vi. n. 119 seq. and n. 159; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 401; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 406.]