arrangement (Laud, Works, v. 104–7). The Digby MSS. are all on vellum, and are chiefly the work of English mediæval scribes. They number 236. and are bound in volumes stamped with Digby's arms. Writing to Dr. Langbaine (7 Nov. 1654), Digby says that the university is to place his gift at the service of all students, and he has no objection to the loan of the manuscripts outside the library. Two additional volumes of Digby's manuscripts were purchased in 1825. Digby promised to make a further donation to the Bodleian, but never did so, although he gave Laud many Arabic manuscripts to send to the university or St. John's College Library, of which nothing more was heard.
In February 1632 there was some fruitless talk of making Digby a secretary of state in the place of Lord Dorchester, lately dead. Early in 1633 he and Lord Bothwell were present at a spiritualist séance given by the astrologer Evans in Gunpowder Alley (Lilly, Autobiog.) On 1 May 1633 Lady Digby died suddenly. Absurd reports were circulated that Digby killed her by insisting on her drinking viper-wine to preserve her beauty. His grief was profound, and he erected an elaborate monument in Christ Church, Newgate, which was destroyed in the great fire. Ben Jonson wrote in her praise a fine series of poems, which he entitled ‘Eupheme,’ and dedicated to Sir Kenelm (issued in Underwoods), and Thomas May, Joseph Rutter (in ‘Shepheard's Holiday,’ 1635), Owen Felltham (in ‘Lusoria,’ 1696), William Habington, Lord George Digby, and Aurelian Townshend also commemorated in verse Digby's loss (cf. Addit. MS. 30259, and Bright, Poems from Digby's Papers). The widower retired to Gresham College, and spent two years there in complete seclusion, amusing himself with chemical experiments. ‘He wore a long mourning cloak, a high-cornered hat, his beard unshorn, looked like a hermit, as signs of sorrow for his beloved wife’ (Aubrey).
After 1630 Digby professed protestantism, and gave Archbishop Laud the impression that he had permanently abandoned Roman catholicism (Laud, Works, iii. 414). A letter from James Howell to Strafford shows, however, that before October 1635 Digby had returned to Rome (Strafford, Letters, i. 474). On 27 March 1636 Laud acknowledged a letter, no longer extant, in which Digby accounted for his reconversion, which caused the archbishop regret, but did not hinder their friendly relations (Laud, vi. 447–55). Digby was in France at the time (1636), and published in Paris in 1638 ‘A Conference with a Lady about Choice of a Religion,’ in which he argued that a church must prove uninterrupted possession of authority to guarantee salvation to its adherents, but might allow liberty of opinion in subsidiary matters. In letters to George Lord Digby [q. v.], Bristol's son, dated 2 Nov. 1638 and 29 March 1639, he defended the authority of the fathers on the articles of faith. These were published with Lord George's reply in 1651. In 1637 he learned of Ben Jonson's death, and wrote to urge Duppa to issue the collection of mourning verses known as ‘Jonsonus Virbius’ (Harl. MS. 4153, f. 21).
In 1639 Digby was again in England. He saw much of Queen Henrietta Maria and her catholic friends, Walter Montague, Endymion Porter, and Sir Tobie Matthew. At her suggestion he and Montague appealed to the English catholics (April 1639) for money to support Charles I's military demonstration in Scotland; and their letter of appeal was widely circulated (cf. A Coppy of the Letter sent by the Queene's Majestie concerning the collection of the Recusants' Money, &c., &c., London, 1641). The scheme failed to meet with papal favour, and it was reported early in 1640 that Digby was going to Rome to negotiate personally with the pope (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. 81 a, 4th Rep. 294 a). On 11 Sept. 1640 Secretary Vane wrote that Digby was making unseasonable and impracticable proposals to Charles I. His suspicious conduct led the Long parliament to summon him to the bar on 27 Jan. 1640–1, and on 16 March the commons petitioned the king to remove him and other popish recusants from his councils. On 22 June 1641 he was examined by the committee of recusants as to the circulation of his letter to the catholics. He was soon afterwards again at Paris, where his knight-errant disposition made itself very apparent. He challenged a French lord, named Mount le Ros, for insulting Charles I in his presence, and killed his opponent. But the king of France pardoned him, and gave him a safe-conduct and military escort into Flanders. In September 1641 Evelyn met him there, whence Digby seems to have soon returned to London. On 24 Nov. an inquiry was ordered into the publication of a pamphlet by Digby describing his French duel. Early in 1642, at the suggestion of the lord mayor of London, the House of Commons ordered Digby to be imprisoned. The sergeant-at-arms at first confined him at ‘The Three Tobacco Pipes nigh Charing Cross,’ where Sir Basil Brooke and Sir Roger Twysden were his companions, and his charming conversation, according to Twysden, made the prison ‘a place of delight’ (Archæologia Cantiana, ii. 190). Subsequently Digby was removed to
