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Understanding the era of the eighty-five martyrs
Eighty-five martyrs who died for the Catholic faith in England and
Wales more than three centuries ago were beatified by His Holiness Pope
John Paul II in St Peter's on Sunday 22 November. Their names were added
to the great roll of honour of the Catholic martyrs of England and
Wales: Cardinal John Fisher and Sir Thomas More who were canonized in
1935, the forty martyrs canonized in 1970, and one hundred and
fifty-five blessed martyrs beatified amongst three groups in 1886, 1895
and 1929.
Of these eighty-five martyrs, eighty were Englishmen, born in various
parts of the country, and three were from Wales, one from Scotland and
one from Ireland. They were put to death in cities and towns throughout
the land between 1584 and 1679, singly or two, three or four together:
twenty in the capital, London; twenty-five in York, the chief city in
the north of England; nine at Lancaster and seven at Durham, also in the
north; four in the university city of Oxford, three at Derby in the
midlands, three at Gloucester in the southwest, twelve in other towns
around England and two in Wales. They lived and suffered during the
period known to English Catholics as "the penal times", when
Catholicism was a proscribed religion in England and severe penal laws
were in force against its adherents.
PERSECUTION UNDER HENRY VIII (1509-47)
Generally speaking the persecution of Catholics in England and Wales
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came in waves, caused by
particular incidents or circumstances, with intervals of comparative
respite in between. The first wave was in the time of King Henry VIII,
from 1534 onwards, when by act of Parliament the king became
"supreme head of the Church in England", up to the end of the
reign in 1547. From these years there are seven canonized and
thirty-three blessed martyrs; the best known are Sts John Fisher and
Thomas More, mentioned above, both put to death in 1535. None of the
present martyrs, however, suffered in this reign.
ELIZABETH I (1558-1605) ANTI-CATHOLIC LAWS
Henry VIII was succeeded by his son Edward VI (1547-53) and
during his reign Protestantism became established as the religion of
England, but there was no active repression of Catholics. Edward was
followed by Mary I (1553-58), daughter of Henry VIII; she was a Catholic
and under her Catholicism was restored but only temporarily. Elizabeth
I, another daughter of Henry VIII and a Protestant, succeeded Mary in
1558 and Protestantism became the State religion of England once again,
now to remain so permanently. By an Act of Parliament of 1559 Elizabeth
was made "supreme governor" of the realm "in all
spiritual and ecclesiastical things", in other words, head of the
Church as well as of the State. During the early years of her reign no
great pressure was put on Catholics to conform to the "Established
Church" of the new regime, but the situation changed rapidly from
about 1570 onwards, mainly as a result of various events in England.
First there was the Northern Rising of 1569, an unsuccessful
rebellion by Catholics in the north of England seeking the restoration
of Catholicism and the release of the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots,
the Catholic cousin of Elizabeth and in Catholic eyes the rightful heir
to the English throne. Then in 1570 Pope St Pius V excommunicated
Elizabeth and released her subjects from their allegiance to her, which
naturally increased the English government's hostility towards
Catholics. Shortly after, from 1574 onwards, priests from the newly
founded seminaries overseas—at Douai and Rome and in Spain—began to
arrive in England, and the first Jesuit missionaries came in 1580. The
activities of this new generation of priests alarmed the government and
the result was that severe laws against Catholics, the "penal
laws", were soon enacted. An Act of Parliament of 1581 made
reconciliation to the Catholic Church treason, and another Act in 1585
"against Jesuits and seminary priests", the most infamous of
all these laws, proscribed as treason the very presence of a Catholic
priest in England and made it felony for anyone to shelter or assist
him. Treason and felony were capital crimes and thus many Catholics were
to suffer death under these laws.
Finally, in 1588 there was the Spanish Armada, which carried an army
intended for the invasion of England and the overthrow of the Protestant
Queen and her regime. The expedition failed, but for English Protestants
it was the ultimate proof that the Pope and Spain were in league with
English Catholics against them and that the returning priests and those
to whom they ministered were the agents of foreign powers organizing, a
fifth column in their country. The repressive anti-Catholic laws were
now enforced rigorously, and thus during the last thirty years or so of
the sixteenth century English Catholics underwent the longest period of
sustained persecution in their history. Of the present eighty-five
martyrs, sixty-eight suffered in these years, between 1584 and 1601,
i.e.
forty-eight priests (including one Dominican and two Jesuits) and
twenty laymen, all except two condemned under the new Elizabethan laws.
JAMES 1 (1603-25) AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT (1695)
Elizabeth I was succeeded by James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary
Queen of Scots, who now became James I of England. Though James was a
convinced Protestant, at the beginning of his reign the Catholics had
great hopes of toleration, but these soon proved to be illusory. In 1605
came the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy by a number of hotheaded Catholics
(the best known being Guy Fawkes) to blow up the Houses of Parliament
when the King and the members of Parliament were present. The plot was
discovered before it could be carried out and the conspirators were
subsequently executed, but strong anti-Catholic feeling was aroused and
the penal laws were strengthened and again enforced strictly. Nine of
the present group of martyrs suffered in this reign, between 1604 and
1618, i.e. seven priests and two laymen. All of them were condemned
under the act of 1585, merely for being priests or assisting priests.
CHARLES 1 (1625-49) AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR (1642-49)
Charles I succeeded his father in 1625 and the earlier years of his
reign were a time of relative peace for English Catholics. His French
Catholic Queen consort had her Catholic chaplains, the chapels of the
Catholic ambassadors in London were well attended, religious
houses and schools founded on the Continent by English Catholic exiles
flourished, and even for a time papal agents resided in London.
Meanwhile the penal laws were largely held in abeyance through the
King's favour and only two martyrs suffered between 1625 and 1640.
Things changed, however, when the Long Parliament, predominantly
Puritan, assembled in 1640 and began to challenge the King's authority.
The Puritans were the extreme Protestant party in England, who sought
further reform of the English Church in accordance with Calvinist
theology, and they were very hostile to Catholics. Persecution now
recommenced; two priests were executed in 1641 and several more
in the first half of 1642 and, with the outbreak of the Civil War
between King and Parliament in August 1642, persecution continued under
the Parliament alone after the
King had left London: thirteen priests were put to death between
August 1642 and August 1646. The Parliamentarians finally had the upper
hand, the King was executed in 1649, the monarchy was abolished and the
period known as the Commonwealth followed (1649-60). Of our eighty-five
martyrs, six priests (including four Franciscans) suffered during the
years of the Civil War, all under the Act of 1585.
CHARLES II (1660-85) AND THE OATES PLOT (1678)
The restoration of the monarchy with Charles II, son of Charles I, in
1660 brought fresh hope to English Catholics. The new king was grateful
to the many Catholics who had supported the royal cause in the Civil War
and helped him escape to France. Moreover, during his exile on the
Continent he had had much contact with English Catholics. In 1602 he
married the Catholic Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the King of
Portugal, and indeed he eventually became a Catholic himself on his
deathbed. He was anxious to make life easier for Catholics, but the fact
was that the royal power had been decisively weakened by the Civil War
and the execution of his father, and again and again he had to give way
to Parliament, which was largely anti-Catholic.
In the late 1660s Charles' younger brother James, Duke of York and
heir presumptive to the throne, became a Catholic and then married the
Catholic Mary of Modena in 1673. Protestants now became alarmed at the
prospect of a Catholic king in England and consequently they readily
accepted the fabricated evidence of Titus Oates in 1678 about a Catholic
conspiracy to assassinate Charles, massacre Protestants and put the
Catholic James on the throne. Oates was later convicted of perjury,
flogged and imprisoned, but his allegations were believed at the time
and caused widespread panic, and another wave of persecution began. It
was in fact short and was the last persecution in England in which
Catholics were put to death, but it was very fierce while it lasted.
Between 1678 and 1681 one bishop, nineteen priests, one Benedictine
brother and four laymen were executed, some on false charges of
involvement in the Oates Plot and others under the act of 1585. Among
the latter were the last two of the eighty-five martyrs, both priests
(one of them an Irish Franciscan).
THE LAWS UNDER WHICH THE MARTYRS SUFFERED
Of the present eighty-five martyrs, two (William Carter and George
Haydock, London 1584) were condemned on false charges under an ancient
treason law of 1352, while the other eighty-three all suffered on
charges of treason or felony under the Elizabethan penal laws. These
laws had as their object the conformity of all subjects to the
Established Church, i.e. the Church established by law at the beginning
of the Queen's reign. They were directed at "recusants" in
general, i.e. those who refused (recusare) to conform to this
Church, and in particular at Catholics as the most numerous and best
organized body. Enacted one by one as occasion demanded, they were
enforced with varying degrees of strictness according to the temper of
the times and the attitudes of the authorities in different parts of the
country, and they cost many Catholics their estates, their liberty and
their lives. As seen by Catholics, these laws simply enlarged the
concepts of treason and felony to include various actions prescribed or
approved by the Catholic faith, e.g. the celebration of Mass and the
sheltering of priests, but to the Protestant government Catholics
appeared to be in league with hostile foreigners, the Pope and Spain in
particular, attempting to overthrow the Protestant State and reestablish
a Catholic regime in England. This view was confirmed by the Pope's
excommunication of the Queen in 1570 and the coming of the Spanish
Armada in 1588 and later by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the
fabricated Oates Plot of 1678. The great majority of English Catholics
were patriotic and wanted to combine two loyalties, to their monarch and
country and to their faith, but in the circumstances of the time it was
very difficult and often impossible to do so and a great many suffered
cruelly as a result.
The two best known of all the Elizabethan penal laws, under one or
other of which almost all the present martyrs suffered, were: (i)
"An act to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in their due
obedience", passed in 1581, which made it treason to reconcile or
be reconciled to the Catholic Church or to induce others to be so
reconciled ("persuading to popery"). Of the present martyrs,
one priest and six laymen suffered under this Act between 1587 and 1596.
(ii) "An act against Jesuits and seminary priests", passed in
1585, which made it treason for any Englishman ordained a Catholic
priest abroad after 1559 to come into or remain in England and felony
for anyone to shelter or assist such a priest. This Act was the
culmination of the Elizabethan penal legislation and rendered most of
the previous laws obsolete. Henceforth once it was shown that a man was
a Catholic priest ordained after the specified date, he was ipso
facto guilty of treason and likewise lay people who assisted such a
priest were ipso facto guilty of felony. Treason and felony both
incurred the death penalty, treason by the brutal process of hanging,
drawing (disembowelling) and quartering, and felony by hanging only.
Most of the martyrs during the rest of the English persecution were
condemned under this Act; of the present eighty-five, seventy-five
suffered under it, i.e. sixty-one priests and fourteen laymen
MEN OF EVERY AGE AND SOCIAL CLASS
Our eighty-five martyrs included men of every age and they were drawn
from all social classes. Sixty-five of them were priests and the
remainder were laymen. Of the priests, fifty-five were
"seminary" priests, so called because they were trained and
ordained in the English seminaries established overseas in the days of
persecution—today we would call them diocesan priests. The other
priests were from the religious orders: five Franciscans, two Jesuits
and one Dominican, all likewise trained and ordained abroad. Some of
them were young men in their twenties, just returned to England after
ordination and arrested almost as soon as they landed; others had
laboured long on the English mission: a few were aged up to seventy and
one was about eighty when executed. Many of them came from well-to-do
families, but one had worked as a shoemaker and a cook before beginning
his studies for the priesthood and another was the son of a carpenter.
As well as their ecclesiastical studies, some also had degrees from the
universities of Oxford or Cambridge before entering the seminaries, and
five had been in orders in the Established Church before their
conversion to Catholicism.
Amongst the lay martyrs also were young men and men well advanced in
years. One was described as "a youth" and some more were in
their twenties, while at the other end of the age scale one was referred
to as sanctissimus senex and another, a widower, was said
to be "a fatherly old man". Some of the laymen were gentlemen
or prosperous landowners but many too were of more lowly status:
craftsmen—a printer, a glove maker, a tailor, a carpenter, a weaver;
and ordinary working men—a serving man at an inn, a stableman, a
lady's manservant, a farm labourer. At least seven of the laymen were
married, possibly more, and most of these had children.
The laymen suffered because they were closely involved with the
priests, helping them in one way or another with their ministry; indeed
without the cooperation and assistance of such laymen the priests simply
could not function. Many, especially the better-off, "received' the
priests, to use the official term, i.e. they sheltered them in their
homes and provided a base from which they could operate and where they
could gather the faithful together with relative security for the
celebration of the Eucharist. These places were the "safe
houses" by means of which the underground Catholic Church of the
time was able to survive, and many of the owners were arrested and went
to death with the priests they had sheltered. Other laymen aided the
priests in various other ways: they arranged safe conduct for them,
accompanied them on their journeys, visited them in prison and sometimes
helped them escape. And even though there are no women martyrs among the
present group, women nonetheless played an important role. The wives of
some of the lay martyrs were arrested with their husbands, as were other
women who sheltered priests, and a few of them were even condemned to
death, but the sentences were not carried out. All, men and women, were
well aware that in receiving or assisting a priest they risked their
lives, but nevertheless did not hesitate because they valued the faith
above life itself.
IMPRISONMENT, TORTURE, TRIAL AND EXECUTION
All the martyrs endured much physical suffering. They were imprisoned
for longer or shorter periods—one of the present group spent sixteen
years confined in various gaols. They were uncomfortably lodged, their
gaolers treated them roughly, their companions were criminals; sometimes
they were kept in solitary confinement, occasionally they
were put in chains. They were subjected to lengthy interrogation,
even under torture, to extract from them information about fellow
Catholics with a view to pursuing these also. When brought to court for
trial the dice was loaded against them; they had little chance of being
acquitted unless they agreed to renounce their faith and conform to the
Established Church. Finally there was the terrible suffering of
execution, carried out in public in the presence of a mostly hostile
crowd, particularly brutal when the victim had been condemned for
treason and was cut down alive and then disembowelled and quartered.
The martyrs went to their deaths bravely, often joyfully blessing God
for the privilege he was about to confer on them. Many of the priests
addressed the people from the scaffold, proclaiming their priesthood and
asserting that they laid down their lives willingly for the Catholic
faith. Their heroic perseverance to the end, their readiness to make the
supreme sacrifice of life itself for their beliefs, must surely be an
example and an inspiration for all Christians and indeed for all people
of goodwill in our own age.
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