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The English Martyrs 1535–1680: a statistical review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Geoffrey F. Nuttall
Geoffrey F. Nuttall
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Church History, New College, University of London
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Extract

The mills of the papacy grind slowly. It is close on a hundred years since, in 1874, the Cause of the English Martyrs was officially opened. From those who suffered between 1535 and 1681, 360 names were submitted to the Holy See. Twelve years later, in 1886, 316 of these names were approved; the remaining 44 were postponed for further consideration (dilati). Of the 316 approved, 54 were beatified; the remaining 262 were declared worthy of veneration. In 1895, nine more martyrs were beatified, making a total of 63; 253 remained Venerable. All those beatified on these two occasions suffered during the first third (1535–83) of the period of persecution. In 1923, a Commission was appointed to sit at Westminster; and, in 1929, the process of beatification was renewed: 136 more martyrs were then beatified, making a total of 199; 117 remained Venerable. Of these 136, all but four suffered during the last two thirds (1584–1681) of the period of persecution. The proportion of the number of those beatified in the two groups (63:136) is close to the proportion of the number of years in the two periods (48:96). This may be coincidental, rather than fair or ‘wooden’.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , July 1971 , pp. 191 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

page 191 note 1 The source for the figures above, as for those which follow, is Martyrs of England & Wales 1535–1680: a chronological list, Catholic Truth Society, 1967, with introduction (1960) by Fr. Philip Caraman, S.J., and Fr. James Walsh, S.J., Vice-Postulators: being a revision of Our Martyrs: a chronological list, C.T.S., 1928, with introduction by Fr. C. A. Newdigate, S.J.

page 191 note 2 For Plunket, see D.N.B. 3 The names of five other Irishmen have, nevertheless, not been withdrawn. Possibly the Irish hierarchy has shown less interest in them than in Plunket. They are: Bl. John Roche (alias Neale), a layman († 1588); Bl. John Carey and Bl. Patrick Salmon, laymen († 1594); Bl. Ralph Corby (vere Corbington), S.J. († 1644); and Ven. Charles Mihan (sometimes called Mahoney), a Franciscan († 1679). For Corby, see D.N.B., as Corbie; for the others, see Joseph Gillow, Literary and Biographical History, or Bibliographical Dictionary of ths English Catholics, 1885–1902, v. 435, i. 398, v. 470 and iv. 392 (Patrick Salmon as John).

page 192 note 1 The attainder following Stafford's beheading for treason was reversed in 1824: see D.N.B. 2 One name among the dilati, that of Thomas Dyer, O.S.B., has also been silently withdrawn, possibly because the year of his martyrdom is uncertain.

page 192 note 3 For the developments in beatification and canonisation and the growth of papal control over both, see E. W. Kemp, Canonization and Authority in the Western Church, 1948.

page 192 note 4 Namely Bl. Peter Wright, S.J. († 1651) and St. John Southworth, a seminary priest († 1654). For Wright, see D.N.B. Southworth is the subject of a C.T.S. tract (1938) by J. L. Whitfield. ‘Cromwell, it is said, wished to pardon him’: C. H. Firth, Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England, 1935 edn., 362.

page 192 note 5 In 1656 the French ambassador reported that ‘his co-religionists received better treatment under the Protector than had been accorded to them by any former Government, whether Royal or Parliamentary’: S. R. Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate 1640–1656, 1903, iv. 19.

page 192 note 6 ‘The mildness of his rule earned him a deeply felt popularity, and under his sway there was less persecution than there was again for a century’: A. F. Pollard, in D.N.B.

page 193 note 1 For Margaret Ward, see Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. J. H. Pollen, 1924 (1969 reprint), 141–5.

page 193 note 2 Namely St. John Houghton, St. Robert Lawrence and St. Augustine Webster respectively. For Houghton, see D.N.B.; for Lawrence, see Gillow, op. cit., iv. 159–61.

page 193 note 3 Namely Bl. Richard Whiting, Bl. Hugh Faringdon (vere Cook) and Bl. John Beche (vere Marshall) respectively. All suffered in 1539: see D.N.B., Beche as Beach.

page 193 note 4 Namely St. Richard Reynolds († 1535) of Syon Abbey: see D.N.B. 5 Namely St. John Stone (1539), of Austin Friars, Canterbury.

page 193 note 6 Cf. Godfrey Anstruther, The Seminary Priests: a Dictionary of the Secular Clergy of England and Wales 1558–1850: I. Elizabethan 1558–1603, Ware & Durham [1969].

page 193 note 7 Among them St. Edmund Campion († 1581); St. Henry Walpole († 1595), who was converted at Campion's execution; and St. Nicholas Owen († 1606), who became noted for his construction of ‘priests holes’. For all three, see D.N.B.; and for Campion the biography (1935) by Evelyn Waugh.

page 193 note 8 Namely St. John Roberts († 1610), St. Ambrose (Edward) Barlow († 1641) and St. Alban (Bartholomew) Roe (Rowe) († 1642). For Roberts and Barlow, see D.N.B.; for Roberts, also Dictionary of Welsh Biography, ed. Sir John Lloyd and R. T. Jenkins, 1959, and Maurus Lunn, O.S.B., in Ampleforth Journal, lxxv (1970), 390–2; for Roe, see James Forbes, O.S.B., ibid., 381–9.

page 193 note 9 Namely St. John Jones (alias Buckley) († 1598) and St. John Wall (alias Francis Webb and Johnson) († 1679). For Jones, see D.N.B. (he is to be distinguished from the Benedictine John Jones, D.D., first President-General of the English Benedictines, for whom see D.N.B. and D. W.B.); for Wall, see Trappes-Lomax, T. B. in Recusant Histoty, vi (1962), 195–200Google Scholar.

page 194 note 1 St. Philip Howard, grandfather of Lord Stafford (above, 192 n.i); see D.N.B. 2 Bl. Thomas Percy: see D.N.B. 3 See above, 192 n.i.

page 194 note 4 Namely Bl. John Storey (ti570: see D.N.B. 5 Namely Bl. Richard Langhorne († 1679): see D.N.B. 6 Namely Ven. William Carter († 1584) and Bl. James Duckett († 1602): for both, see D.N.B.; and for Duckett, M. M. Merrick, James Duckett: a study of his life and times, 1947.

page 194 note 7 Cf. Martin Haile, Life of Reginald Pole, 2nd edn. 1911, 282–3. For Lady Salisbury, see D.N.B. 8 See M. T. Monro, Blessed Margaret Clitherow, 1946; and now, Mary Claridge (vere K. M. Longley), Margaret Clitherow, 1966, and in Ampleforth Journal lxxv (1970), 335–64.

page 194 note 9 For Margaret Ward, see above, 193 n.i.

page 194 note 10 For Anne Line, see Gillow, op. cit., iv. 247–51.

page 194 note 11 Pierre Janelle (Robert Southwell the Writer, 1935, 5), noting the debt owed by Southwell († 1595, a Jesuit now canonised) to his mother, observes that ‘here as in many other cases, the religious tradition was maintained by a woman’; cf. 41, 57–8.

page 195 note 1 For Mayne, who had been chaplain of St. John's College, Oxford, see D.N.B. and Anstruther, op. cit., i. 224–6.

page 195 note 2 For Boste, a seminary priest, see Anstruther, op. cit., i. 434.

page 195 note 3 Namely Ven. Stephen Rowsham (alias Rouse) († 1587), a seminary priest; he was ‘minister of St. Mary's, Oxford’ in 1578: Anstruther, op. cit., i. 296–7.

page 195 note 4 Namely Ven. Robert Sutton († 1588), a seminary priest; he became rector of Lutterworth in 1571: Anstruther, op. cit., i. 343.

page 195 note 5 ‘The outstanding characteristic of all Recusancy statistics is the overwhelming preponderance of Lancashire…. The extreme Northern counties, Northumberland and Durham in particular, were always strongly Catholic, but nowhere do we find such a concentration as in Lancashire’: Brian Magee, The English Recusants, 1938, 198; see further F. O. Blundell, Old Catholic Lancashire (1550–1850), 3 vols. 1925–41.

page 195 note 6 ‘In the West Monmouthshire and Herefordshire were Catholic strongholds’: Brian Magee, loc. cit. For the persistent Catholicism of Monmouth and Abergavenny, with the Jesuit College at the Cwm, Llanrothal, see Donald Attwater, The Catholic Church in Modem Wales, 1935, 26–39, 170–1.

page 195 note 7 Namely St. Philip Evans († 1679), of Monmouth, and St. David Lewis (alias Charles Baker) († 1679), of Abergavenny, a nephew of Fr. Augustine Baker; for both men, who were Jesuits, see D.N.B. and D. W.B. (for Evans, Appendix).

page 195 note 8 Namely St. Richard Gwyn (alias White) († 1584), a layman, of Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire; St. John Jones (alias Buckley) († 1598), a Franciscan, of Clynnog Fawr, Caernarvonshire; St. John Roberts († 1610), a Benedictine, of Trawsfynydd, Merioneth; and St. John Lloyd († 1679), a seminary priest, of Breconshire. For Gwyn, see D.N.B. (as White) and D. W.B., where he is called ‘the protomartyr of Wales’, although Bl. Edward Powell († 1540), a secular priest, had suffered 44 years earlier (see D.N.B. and D.W.B.); for Jones, see above, 193 n.9; for Roberts, see above, 193 n.8; for Lloyd, see D.W.B. (Appendix).

page 196 note 1 At Wrexham St. Richard Gwyn; at Beaumaris Ven. William Davies († 1593), a seminary priest, for whom see D.N.B., D.W.B., and Anstruther, op. cit., i. 98; at Cardiff St. Philip Evans and St. John Lloyd. St. David Lewis suffered at Usk, in Monmouthshire.

page 196 note 2 Namely Ven. Charles Mihan above, 191 n.3.

page 196 note 3 E. G. Jones (Cymru a’r Hen Ffydd, Caerdydd 1959, 83) describes Robert Pugh, who died in Newgate in January 1679, as ‘the last Welshman, it is thought, to suffer for the faith’; this appears to overlook the death of St. John Lloyd on 22 July 1679. For Pugh, see D. W.B., s.v. Puw family. See further, T. P. Ellis, Catholic Martyrs of Wales, 1535–1680, 1933.

page 196 note 4 For Forest, see D.N.B. 5 ‘We know the names of some 75 Catholics who were in Hull gaols between 1570 and 1600, and of these at least a dozen died in gaol…. In 1599 there were 2 priests and 48 other Catholic prisoners in York Castle alone’: Hugh Aveling, Post Reformation Catholicism in East Yorkshire 1558–1790, East Yorkshire Local History Society 1960, 30.

page 196 note 6 E.g., Forty Martyrs, 14, claims ‘many miracles worked’ in the name of St. John Southworth, whose ‘body is venerated in Westminster Cathedral’.

page 196 note 7 Godfrey Anstruther, op. cit., i. 147.

page 197 note 1 L. I. Guiney, Recusant Poets, 1939, 246. For Garnet, Felton and Tichborne, see D.N.B.; for Owen, above, 193 n.7.

page 197 note 2 T. G. Law, in D.N.B. 3 L. I. Guiney, op. cit., 181.

page 197 note 4 Pollen, J. H., in The Month, xcix (1902), 304Google Scholar, as cited by L. I. Guiney, op. cit., 175.

page 197 note 5 Jordan, W. K., The Development of Religious Toleration in England: from the beginning of the English Reformation to the death of Queen Elizabeth, London 1932, 196Google Scholar.

page 197 note 6 Hugh Aveling, op. cit., 21.