The prose and poetry of the martyred Jesuit Robert Southwell reached as wide and varied an audience in his own time, during the pre-Renaissance, as Shakespeare did in the High Renaissance. Southwell's effect on the religious poetry of Tudor and Stuart England, especially on Donne and Herbert, was immense. This study aims to shed light on the work of Robert Southwell. It should be a useful acquisition for Renaissance English history, Christian history, and literary criticism collections.