| VENERABLE WILLIAM KNIGHT
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| Put to death for the Faith at
York, on 29 November, 1596; with him also suffered Venerables George Errington
of Herst, William Gibson of Ripon, and William Abbot of Howden, in Yorkshire.
William Knight was the son of Leonard Knight and lived at South Duffield,
Hemington. On coming of age he claimed some property, left to him by his father,
from his uncle, a Protestant, who denounced him to the authorities for being a
Catholic; he was at once seized and committed to the custody of Colyer, a
pursuivant, who treated him with indignity and severity. He was sent in October,
1593, to York Castle, where William Gibson and George Errington were already
confined, the latter having been arrested some years previously for
participation in a rising in the North. A certain Protestant clergyman chanced
to be among their fellow prisoners. To gain his freedom he had recourse to an
act of treachery: feigning a desire to become a Catholic, he won the confidence
of Knight and his two companions, who explained the Faith to him. With the
connivance of the authorities, he was directed to one Henry Abbot, then at
liberty, who endeavoured to procure a priest to reconcile him to the Church.
Thereupon Abbot was arrested and, together with Knight and his two comrades,
accused of persuading the clergyman to embrace Catholicism—an act of treason
under the penal laws. They were found guilty, sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and
quartered, and suffered their martyrdom with joy and fortitude at York, on 29
November, 1596.
A. A. Macerlean From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright © 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press,
Inc. Electronic version copyright © 1996 by New Advent, Inc. |
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