an English Roman Catholic controversial writer and missionary priest. In the prosecutions following upon the Gunpowder Plot, Norris was committed to the Bridewell. From his prison he addressed a letter to the Earl of Salisbury, dated 1 December 1605, in which he protests his innocence, and in proof of his loyalty promises to repair to Rome, and labor so that the pope shall bind all the Catholics of England to be just, true, and loyal subjects, and that hostages shall be sent "for the afferminge of those things". As a result, in 1606 he was freed and exiled, along with forty-six other priests, went to Rome, and entered the Society of Jesus.
