In June 1580 Hart was ordered to the English mission[3] to replace Thomas Goldwell, and Nicholas Morton, both elderly and well-known in England.
[2] There, after being shown the rack, a frightened Hart was interrogated and gave information concerning a number of Catholics on the Continent, and Allen's theories of how best the Queen might be deposed.
[1] On 1 December 1581 he was to have been executed with Campion, Ralph Sherwin, and Alexander Briant, but when placed on the hurdle he promised to recant, and he was taken back to prison.
What Hart agreed with Walsingham at this point is that he would inform on William Allen, using a claim to having been racked to add to his credibility.
[3] Walsingham gave Hart leave to go to Oxford for three months on condition that he should confer with John Rainolds on the matters in controversy between the English and Roman churches.
Penned by John Rainoldes, according to the notes set down in writing by them both; perused by J. Hart was published at London in 1584, reprinted in 1588, 1598, and 1609, and translated into Latin (Oxford, 1610) by Henry Parry.
Charles Dodd argued that the conference was held on unequal terms, as Hart was unprovided with books, and asserted that the details were unfairly given by Rainolds.
[2] On 21 January 1585 Hart and twenty others, including Jasper Heywood, were sent to France, banished from England by royal commission.
It formed part of the material for the second edition (1586) of the De origine ac progressu schismatis Anglicani' of Nicholas Sander.