His health failing in Rome, he was sent to Belgium, where he entered the Society of Jesus in 1590, and was advanced to the dignity of a professed father in February 1602.
Having been summoned to Spain at the close of the year 1594 or early in 1595, he was captured by the English fleet, then besieging Dunkirk, and sent as a prisoner to England; but the privy council, being unable to discover anything against him, set him at liberty.
He remained for six months in England, living with Richard Cotton at Warblington, Hampshire, where he rendered great assistance to the Catholic cause.
His zeal gave such offence to the privy council, that, although he had never left Belgium, they proclaimed him a traitor, and an accessory in the Gunpowder plot with the priests Garnett and John Gerard, and further accused him of having formerly treated with Frederick Spinola about the Spanish invasion.
As the elector knew that he would be conferring a great favour upon James I of England, he kept him in close custody in various public prisons, and then sent him to England escorted by a guard of twelve soldiers, travelling sometimes on horseback and sometimes in a cart, bound with a heavy chain from the neck to the breast, where it was turned and wound round his entire body, 'being twice as long as would have been required to secure an African lion.'
As if that did not suffice, they hung another chain behind him, eighteen feet long, to carry which it was necessary to have an assistant, whom in jest they called his train-bearer.
Although nothing was proved against him, his captivity lasted for eight years, till 15 June 1618, when, at the intercession of the Count de Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, he was released and sent into banishment.