Was the Bard in Rome during the "lost years"?

And speaking of the was-Will-a-Catholic question, news is breaking all over the ‘net this morning that the English College in Rome has uncovered guestbook signatures which may have been scribbled by Himself. Here’s from the London Times:

According to Father Andrew Headon, vice-rector of the college and organiser of the exhibition, the names can be deciphered as “[King] Arthur’s [compatriot] from Stratford [in the diocese] of Worcester” and “William the Clerk from Stratford”.

A third entry in 1587, “Shfordus Cestriensis”, may stand for “Sh[akespeare from Strat]ford [in the diocese] of Chester”, he said.

The entries fall within the playwright’s “missing years” between 1585, when he left Stratford abruptly, and 1592, when he began his career as playwright in London.

One might ask why a pilgrim in Rome might not just sign his name, “Wm. Shakespeare” or whatever, but, alas, it must be remembered that William Cecil and Elizabeth’s “spymaster” Francis Walsingham had agents all over Catholic Europe keeping their eyes out for Englishmen gone abroad to receive Catholic educations or be trained as priests, so the pilgrim’s discretion should not be wondered at.

And this, of course, is a constant problem with trying to uncover irrefutable info on the subject of Shakespeare’s religious background and orientation.

So not a Smoking Gun, perhaps, but another piece in the “convergence of probabilities”. I wonder, has anyone thought to search the Vatican Archives?

Read the entire Times article here.