for her in that city. The dislike aroused by her independent action pursued her to Germany, and in July 1628, in consequence of a communication from the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Klessel, a private congregation was called by Urban VIII, when it was decided that measures should be taken through the legates of the various countries to break up the houses of the intitute without issuing a papal bull. Warned of the imminence of the peril Mary set out for Rome, but owing to illness was unable to reach the city until February 1629. After laying her case before Urban VIII and the cardinals she returned to Munich, and thence proceeded to Vienna. The report of the suppression rapidly spread ; but on hearing that Mary was to be imprisoned as a heretic, the emperor refused to allow the measures against her to be carried into effect at Vienna. Unwilling to be a cause of strife, she removed to Munich, where on 7 Feb. 1630-1 she was arrested and confined in the Anger convent. The unhealthiness of her prison brought on an illness that was almost fatal. Her friends, however, interested them- selves in her behalf, and on 15 April she was released by a papal mandate. During her imprisonment a papal bull for the suppression of the institute had been issued ; but, owing to the favour of Maximilian, Mary and her companions were permitted to remain in their abode at Paradeiser H aus in Munich. In April 1632 she again set out for Rome to intercede for the dispersed members of her sisterhood, who were undergoing great hardships. She was well received by Urban VIII, who seemed won by her patience under trial, and gave her permission to establish a new house in Rome itself. In October 1634 she took possession of an abode on the Esquiline, which became a frequent resort of English catholics in Rome. Here she remained until 1637, continually beset by spies, and assailed by the malice of her opponents, but supported by the esteem of Urban. In September 1637 she set out for England, arriving in London on 20 May 1638. There she drew companions round her in a house in the neighbourhood of the Strand. She remained in London until the strict parliamentary regime that followed the departure of Charles I for the north in 1642 rendered it too unsafe. She left the city on 1 May, sought refuge in Yorkshire, where she was well received by her catholic kinsfolk, and settled at Hutton Rudby in Cleveland. In 1644 she removed to Heworth, near York. Her health, which had been much impaired during her later years, altogether failed during the hardships of the siege of York by the parliamentary troops, and she died on 20 Jan. 1644-5 at Heworth, soon after the capitulation of the city, and was buried on 22 Jan. in the corner next the porch of Osbaldwick church on the east side, where a gravestone was afterwards placed bearing an inscription which is still legible. It is, however, probable that her body was secretly removed to the Netherlands by her companions at a later date.
After Mary AVard's death various communities following her rule subsisted unrecognised by ecclesiastical authority, until on 13 June 1703 a bull of confirmation of the Institute of Man-, the blessed Virgin, was obtained from Clement XI, which sanctioned all the essential features of Mary Ward's scheme. The headquarters of the order were established at Munich until 1809, when their property was secularised with most of the ecclesiastical possessions in Germany. In Austrian territory, however, they enjoyed the protection of the emperor, and several communities exist at the present day in England, Ireland, and Germany, an well as dependent houses in Asia, Africa, and America. In 1877 Pius IX gave his final approbation to the whole institute.
Mary Ward left fragmentary autobiographies in English and Italian, which are now in possession of the community at Nymphenburg, near Munich. An oil painting of Mary Ward, executed about 1620, is in possession of the nuns of the English Institute of the Blessed Virgin at Augsburg, and a second, representing her in later life, 10 in possession of the nuns of the institute of Altotting in Bavaria. Many of her autograph letters, as well as many historical documents relative to the society, are in the Nymphenburg archives.
A life of Mary Ward by her friend and companion, Winefrid Witrmore, was written between 1645 and 1657. Several copies exist in manuscript both in French and English. A manuscript life in Italian by Vincento Pageti, secretary of Cardinal Borghese and apostolic notary, written in lHi2, and entitled 'Breve Raconto della Vita di donna Maria della Guardia,' is in the possession of the community at Nymphenburg. The next biography in point of time was compiled in Latin in 1674 by Dominic Bissel, canon regular of the holy cross at Augsburg. There is a copy among the archives of the diocese at Westminister. In 1689 a life was written in German at Munich by Tobias Lohner, a Jesuit father. The autograph copy is in the Nymphenburg archives. All of these are in large measure independent, although that by Winefrid Wigmore is of primary importance. In 1717 an account of
