The Year 1584

GEORGE HAYDOCK, Priest *

George HAYDOCK was ^onto Evan Win Hay dock oi

Cottam Hall^ near Preston^ in Lancashire. The father, after the death of his lady, went abroad to the English College of Doway, and though he was well advanced in years, resuming his studies, was, after some time, made priest, and returning into England, laboured for some years with great fruit in the vineyard of his Lord. He was also agent or procurator for the College, which office he discharged to the general satisfaction of his brethren. Two of his sons followed the same course of life as the father had made choice of — Richard, who went with his father to Doway in 1573, and was ordained priest in 1577, and going afterwards to Rome, became at length Doctor of Divinity; and George, of whom we are now treating, who had also his education for four years at Doway College, where he learnt his humanity, and from thence was sent to Rome, where he went through his course of philosophy and began his divinity. But the climate not agreeing with his health, he was obliged to leave Rome, being as yet only deacon, and to go into France, where he remained at Rhemes three months, and was made priest; and from thence returned into England to labour there for the benefit of the souls of his neighbours.

He had scarce arrived at London, when, by the treachery of one Haukinson, he fell into the hands of the pursuivants on the 6th of February 1581-82, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and was by them carried into the church, where one of the ministers conferred for a while with him, and offered him his liberty without more ado if he

8s¹ would renounce the Pope; which Mr. Haydock refusing to do, the pursuivants carried him and Mr. Arthur Pits (whom they also apprehended) before Mr. Popham, the Queen’s attorney, by whom they were strictly examined — as they were again the next day by Cecil, Lord Treasurer, who sent them both to the Tower. Here, between Norris, the pursuivant, and Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower, Mr. Haydock had all his money juggled away; and that the matter might be kept the more secret, the Lieutenant lodged him in a remote place by himself, suffering none of his friends to come near him. By which means, for a year and three months he was not only deprived of all human comfort and assistance, but also of the benefit of the sacraments, excepting once, when a zealous priest contrived a way of coming at him and administering the holy mysteries to him.

A little before his happy end, he had another place assigned for him, where he was not so narrowly watched but that sometimes his friends might come to see him, by which means he had both an opportunity of communicating oftener, and others were greatly edified by conversing with him and beholding his humility and patience; for besides all other incommodities of his imprisonment which he had to endure, he was continually struggling with a lingering disease, which he had first contracted in Italy, and which now returned upon him in prison, and frequently caused most violent stitches and pains. After he had been a long time tried in this school of patience, it pleased God that he should at length be called forth to give proofs of his fortitude and courage also in the profession of his faith and in sealing it with his blood. He was brought, therefore, before Mr. Fleetwood, the Recorder of the city, and others, to be examined; upon which occasion he showed so much intrepidity in maintaining the cause, that the examiners, being resolved to make away with him, put those murthering questions to him — what he thought of the power of the Pope and of the Queen in spirituals. To which he readily answered, that he believed the Bishop of Rome was, under Christ, the chief head of the Church upon earth, and that this dignity and authority could not belong to the Queen or any other woman. This was enough. However, to make him more odious to her Majesty, they pressed him still further, and did not leave off till, by force of questions and inferences, they had brought him, though against his will, to say that the Queen was a heretic, and, without repentance, would be eternally lost. This examination was upon the i8th oi January 1583-84, on which day the Church celebrates the festivity of St. Peter’s chair at Rome; and it was a

GEORGE HAYDOCK subject of great satisfaction to Mr. Hay dock that he should be called forth to maintain the authority of the successor of St. Peter on that day of his chair, as he signified afterwards to his companions.

On the 6th of February (the very day on which he had been first apprehended two years before) he was carried from the Tower to Westminster Hall, and there arraigned for high treason, with his four companions, Mr. Fenn, Mr. Hemerford^ Mr. Nutter, and Mr. Munden. They were all brought in guilty by the jury, and the next day received sentence of death as in cases of high treason. The cause for which they were sentenced to die is thus set down by Mr. Stow in his Chronicle, 1584: ‘ The 7th of February, John Fenn (he should say James), George Haddock, John Munden, John Nutter, and Thomas Hemerford were all five found guilty of high treason, in being made priests beyond the seas and by the Pope’s authority, since a statute made in anno primo of her Majesty’s reign, and had judgment to be hanged, bowelled, and quartered; who were all executed at Tyburn on the 12th of February ' So Mr. Stow, who takes no notice of the pretended plot of Rome and Rhemes, which they were also pleased to charge upon them, their very adversaries being sensible there were no grounds for any such accusation.

Mr. Haydock received the sentence of death with incredible joy, returning hearty thanks to God for so great a favour; and whereas his apprehension and his arraignment both happened on the day of his patroness, St. Dorothy, virgin and martyr, he attributed this happy event to her prayers, and marked it down in the calendar of his breviary, which, when he was going to die, he bequeathed to Mr. Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, at that time prisoner in the Tower for the Catholic religion. In the meanwhile, being wholly intent on preparing himself for his happy passage, he was alarmed by a rumour spread about the city, which was brought to him in the Tower, that the Queen had changed her mind, and that he was not to suffer. Upon which, when his friends congratulated with him, he, on the other side, who saw himself, as he thought, just in the haven, and was very unwilling to be drove back again into the midst of the dangers of the tempestuous sea of this mortal life, conceived a great grief; but his confessarius, a man of great prudence and experience, encouraged him, assuring him that these rumours were industriously spread about only to make the world believe that the Queen was averse to these cruelties, to take off the odium of them from her Majesty, as if they were extorted from her against her inclinations; and that such reports as these, as it had been found in the case of Mr. Forde, Mr. Shert, &c., were indeed a sign that hejand his companions would certainly suffer. Upon this Mr. Haydock was freed from his fears, and wholly applied himself, by watching, fasting, and prayer, to prepare for his last end.

On the 1 2th of February (Dr. Bridgewater says the 13th), Mr. Haydock early in the morning said Mass in his chamber, to prepare himself by the holy viaticum for his journey into eternity; and then, with his four companions, was drawn through the streets from the Tower to Tyburn. When they were come to the place, Mr. Hay-dock, though the youngest of them all, was first ordered up into the cart, into which he ascended with great alacrity. Here, the rope being now about his neck, he was called upon by Spencer, the Sheriff, and by the ministers, to confess his treason against the Queen and to ask her pardon. He answered, I call God to witness, upon my soul, that I am innocent of the pretended treason, and therefore I have no occasion to ask her pardon. He added withal, that he acknowledged her for his Queen, and wished her all happiness, and had offered up several prayers to God for her that very day; and that such was his disposition in regard to her Majesty, that if he were alone with her in a wilderness, where he might, without danger, do to her what he pleased, he would not hurt her with the prick of a pin, though he might have the whole world for so doing.

The Sheriff, who showed himself a bitter enemy to Mr. Haydock and his fellow-confessors, told him, that since his condemnation they had discovered far more heinous Crimes of him; and, upon this, the infamous Mwiday was called for, who pretended that he had heard him, when he was at Rome, wish for the Queen’s head. Mr. Haydock answered, I am just now going to appear before the bar of Divine justice, to give an account of all I have done in my life; I call, therefore, God, the Judge of my soul, to witness that I never spoke any such words, or ever desired any such thing; and thoUy Munday, said he, if thou hadst heard me say such words, why didst thou 7iot appear witness against me at my trial? Because, said Munday, I knew nothing of the business. But, said the Sheriff, did you not say the Queen was a heretic? Yes, said Mr. Haydock, 1 own I said so. With that the officers and ministers made a great outcry, calling him a thousand traitors, and loading him with reproaches and injuries. In the meantime, Mr. Haydock, not attending to their cries, said his prayers to himself. One of the ministers, who was in the cart with him, would have had him pray aloud in English, that the people might join with him in prayer; but the confessor, putting away the minister from him as well as he could, told him he had nothing to say to him or his^ but that he desired all Catholics to pray with him to their common Lord^ for his and their whole country's salvation.

One of the crowd cried out, There are no Catholics here. Yes, said another, we are all Catholics. / call those Catholics^ said Mr. Hay dock y who follow the faith of the Holy Catholic Roman Church. God grant that the Catholic faith may receive some increase by my blood. The Catholic faith y said the Sheriff; the diabolical faith! Drive away the cart and hang the villainous traitor. The cart was drove away, and Mr. Hay dock was suffered to hang but a very little while, when Spencer, the Sheriff, ordered the rope to be cut, and the whole butchery to be performed upon him whilst he was alive and perfectly sensible; and so, through most cruel torments, he passed to a better life, February 12, 1583-84.

JAMES FENN, Priest.^

He was born [about 1540] at MojitacutCy in Somersetshire, and brought up in Oxford — first in New College y where his two elder brothers, John and Robert, studied at that time, and in July as in Corpus Christi College. But being about to be received Fellow of the College, he boggled at the oath of supremacy which was tendered him upon that occasion, and thereupon was expelled the house. However, he stayed a while longer in the University, and was tutor to some young scholars in Gloucester Hall; but not finding himself safe here, he retired from Oxford into his native county, Somersetshire y where he was entertained by a gentleman of fortune in quality of tutor or preceptor to his sons, whom he brought up in the fear of God and the love of the old religion, though their father, who was a worldly man, had another way of thinking. Here Mr. Fenn married a wife, by whom he had two children [Frances and John; and having undergone divers persecutions for his conscience, and, after some time, lost his wife, he betook himself to the service of Sir Nicholas PointZy an eminent Catholic gentleman, whom he served in quality of steward, to the great satisfaction of his master and all that had any dealings with him. And such, indeed, was his conduct in every station of life that he went through, as not only² faithfully to discharge the duties of his office, but also to behave himself with so much edification that the whole tenor of his life was a perpetual sermon, by which he strongly recommended virtue and piety to all that conversed with him.

A learned and pious priest, who used to frequent Sir Nicholases house, taking notice of the excellent qualifications and rare virtues of Mr. Fenn^ thought it a pity that his talents should not be employed in greater things, and seriously advised him to quit that worldly employ, and go over to Rhemes to the English College, lately translated thither irom Dow ay, that, receiving holy orders, and returning into his country, he might be serviceable to the souls of many. Mr. Fenn took the counsel of the holy man, and giving up his stewardship, went over to Rhemes, where he was made priest, as appears by the College Diary, anno 1580, and so was sent upon the mission. His labours were in his own native county, Somersetshire, where he reconciled several persons of distinction to the Catholic 'Church. But it was not long before he was apprehended by the persecutors, though not yet known to be a priest, and sent to Ilchester gaol, where he was lodged amongst the felons and loaded with irons. And that nothing might be wanting to his disgrace, he was exposed, chained and fettered as he was, in a public place on a market-day, for a show to all the people; but the success did not answer the design and expectation of his adversaries. For such was the invincible patience, such the modesty of his countenance and the tranquillity of soul which discovered itself in his whole behaviour on this occasion, that the spectators conceived a great veneration for him, and many began to look more seriously into their religion, being not a little shocked to see a man treated in this manner barely for following the dictates of his conscience in matters of religion.

The magistrates in the county being alarmed at this, acquainted the Queen’s Council, by letters, with the whole matter, who ordered Mr. Fenn to be sent up to London, where he was examined by Secretary Walsingham, and sent prisoner to the Marshalsea. Here he was kept for two whole years, the jailors and turnkeys not knowing him to be a priest, and, therefore, treating him with more humanity than otherwise they would have done, and not prohibiting any one to visit him; which opportunity Mr. Fenn made good use of, not only to confirm the Catholics in their faith, and administer the holy sacraments to as many as applied to him, but also to reconcile several Protestants to the Church. In the mean time, he prayed much, meditated often, exercised himself daily in the works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual, to his fellow prisoners, especially those of the household of faith. He had a particular charity for pirates and other unhappy malefactors who were to suffer the law for their crimes, whom he visited as much as he could, and exhorted with great affection to make good use of their time, and to appease the wrath of God by penitence, and to seek a reconciliation with his Divine Majesty in the communion of the Catholic Church, which alone had received from Christ the keys of heaven, and the power of remitting and retaining sins. And such was the force and unction that accompanied his words, that he brought several of those hardened sinners to repentance and confession; and among the rest, a noted pirate, whom he found so deeply oppressed with the load of his sins as to be absolutely in despair of salvation; whom he so effectually exhorted and encouraged, by setting before his eyes the greatness of God’s mercy, and the power He had given to His ministers, that he cast himself at his feet, and desired to be admitted into the Catholic Church, and to make his confession, which he did, after Mr. Fenn had given him proper instructions as far as the shortness of his time would permit. The next day he also admitted him to the holy communion, to his unspeakable comfort; and so stout was this convert, that, being to die the following day, he absolutely refused the communion and prayers of the Protestant ministers, neither regarding their threats nor their promises; and at the place of execution publicly professed that he died a Catholic, and blessed the providence of God that had brought him to a place where he had met with such holy company as taught him to be a Christian.

As Mr. Fenn's words carried with them a particular virtue, by which he made a great impression on the souls of those that conversed with him, so in his very countenance and mien there was something exceedingly engaging and attracting, more especially when he was speaking of God and of heavenly things (which he did as often as he had opportunity), or when he was celebrating the sacred mysteries; insomuch that those who saw him or heard him on these occasions found themselves wonderfully affected and stirred up to devotion by that heavenly air which showed itself in the whole man. A certain gentleman who once assisted at his Mass declared to a priest of his acquaintance, that he found in his soul at that time such unusual sentiments of devotion as he had never experienced before or since, so that he could not refrain from shedding an abundance of tears, and this by seeing the heavenly mien of the holy priest, and that air of recollection and devotion which was so remarkable in him upon that occasion.

One year before his happy end he seemed to have a foreknowledge of his death, and prepared himself for it by a more strict retirement (only when the necessities of his neighbours required his attendance) and a more continual prayer, joined to much watching and fasting; till the time now drawing near when God would crown His servant, he was discovered to be a priest, and committed to a more close confinement. And as it pleased the Ministry at that time to pick out some of the many priests they had then in prison to make an example of them for the terror of the Catholics, he was one that was marked out for the butchery. And as a preparation for this, he was called to an examination, and had the usual murthering questions put to him concerning the supremacy; to which he answered in such manner as to profess all due obedience to the Queen in temporals and the Pope in spirituals; declaring withal that he was a Catholic, and that there was not any one article of the Catholic religion for which he was not willing to lay down his life.

When his trial came on, though they wanted not matter sufficient for his condemnation, on account of his priesthood and the answers he had given to the examiners, yet to make the proceedings against him more plausible in his indictment, they affirmed that James Fenn and George Hay dock ^ in such a year, month, and day (which were all named), had conspired together at Rome to kill the Queen, and had returned into England in order to perpetrate their wickedness. Mr. Fenn being called upon by the judges to answer for himself, called God and all the court of heaven to witness that this accusation was most notoriously false; that, indeed, he had never been at Rome in his life, nor ever any nearer it than Rhemes; that he had never seen Mr. Hay dock till he met him at the bar, and that at the very time when he was pretended to have been plotting at Rome he was actually in England, as he could demonstrate, and that he believed he could make it appear that he was then prisoner in the Marshalsea; that he had never entertained so much as the first thought of any treason against the Queen, and that he would not for the whole kingdom of England have done her the least hurt, though he could be sure of doing it with impunity.

The judge told him that although there might be some error in the circumstances of time, place, &c., yet that he had been sufficiently convicted of treason, and therefore was to look for nothing else but to die; and so neither witness nor any evidence whatsoever being produced to prove the pretended plot, to the astonishment of all that were there, he directed the jury to find him guilty of the indictment, and accordingly pronounced sentence upon him as in cases of high treason; which barefaced iniquity convinced all that the true cause of Mr. Fenn's condemnation and death was no other than his character and religion.

Having received sentence, he was carried to the Tower, and there kept in a dungeon, loaded with irons, from Friday, the day of his condemnation, till Wednesday following, which was the day of his execution. In the meantime Mr. Popham, the Attorney-general, and a doctor of the civil law, formerly schoolfellow to Mr. Fenn, came to him to exhort him to comply and acknowledge the Queen’s authority and obey the laws, promising that if he would, they would use their best endeavours to save his life. The confessor told them he willingly acknowledged the Queen’s authority in all temporal matters, but that he neither could nor would acknowledge her supreme head of the Church, but only as one of the sheep, subject in spirituals to that shepherd to whom Christ committed His whole flock, and that he was ready to die in and for the profession of this faith.

On the day of execution he was laid on a hurdle to be drawn with his companions from the Tower to Tyhiirn. It was a moving spectacle to many to see his little daughter Frances, with many tears, take her last leave of her father upon this occasion, whilst the good man, who had long since been dead to all things in this world, looking upon her with a calm and serene countenance, and lifting up his hands as well as he could, for they were pinioned, gave her his blessing, and so was drawn away. At Tyhurn he was not suffered to speak many words; but after he had prayed for a while, he only declared to the people his innocence of the crime that had been falsely laid to his charge in the court, and then recommended himself and the Queen, to whom he wished all manner of happiness, to God’s mercy. And so the cart being drawn away, he was left hanging for a little while, and then cut down alive, bowelled, and quartered. His quarters were disposed on four gates of the city, and his head upon London Bridge.

Mr. Roherf^Fenn, brother to Mr. James, was also a priest of Doway College, and a great sufferer for his religion. Exiliiim, car ceres, vincula et cruciatus immanes, says Dr. Bridgewater, oh Catholicce veritatis testimonium constantissime perpessus est. Mr. John Fenn, the other brother, was likewise a priest. Both one and the other were ejected from their Fellowships in Oxford for the Catholic religion. And Mr. John Fenn had a great hand in the book called Concertatio Ecclesice Catholicce, etc., published by Dr. Bridgewater. In his latter days he was confessor to the English Augustine nuns at Louvain.

THOMAS HEMERFORD, Priest.

Mr. HEMERFORD ^ or EMERFORD^ was born in Dorsetshire, and brought up in Oxford, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1575. But being dissatisfied with the religion of his country, he went abroad to Rhemes, to the English College, then residing there; and from thence, as I find by the College Journal, was sent to Rome in 1580, where he finished his studies, and was ordained priest. Returning into England, he was apprehended, and w’as one of those that was marked out for execution at the same time with Mr. Hay dock, Mr. Fenn, &c., with whom he was tried and condemned, February 7, and after lying in irons in a dungeon in the Tower for five or six days, was drawn with them from the Tower to Tyburn, where he suffered death with great constancy for his faith and character; being cut down alive, as the rest also were, and so bowelled and quartered, February 12, 1583-84.

JOHN NUTTER, Priest.f

JOHN NUTTER was born in the parish of Burnley, in Lancashire, and educated in the University of Oxford, where he was admitted Bachelor of Divinity, June 13,1575. Afterwards leaving the Protestant communion, he went abroad to Rhemes, where I find, by the College Diary, he and his brother arrived August 23, 1579. Here he was made priest in 1582, and sent upon the mission. He took shipping at Newhaven, “ Havre de Grace,'' in France, with a design to land at Scarborough, but the ship foundering upon the coast of Suffolk, and Mr. Nutter being taken ill of a violent fever, he was put on shore at Dunwich. The ship was soon after lost, but the mariners and passengers were all saved. In the wreck a neighbouring minister, laying hold of a bag in hopes of meeting with some booty, was disappointed to find nothing but Catholic books, from which both he and the magistrates, to whom he gave an account of what he had found, suspected the sick man and his companions³⁴

JOHN NUTTER were priests; and, upon further inquiry, Mr. Nutter not denying his character, they took him into custody, together with Mr. Conyers, another priest, and Mr. Lazoson, a layman. And notwithstanding his illness, they fastened a great chain of iron to his leg, with a clog of wood at the end of it; and having served his two companions in like manner, sent up to town to give an account to the Council of the capture they had made. ^

In the mean time, while they are waiting for an answer, the neighbouring ministers and others crowd in upon Mr. Nutter, and, notwithstanding his sickness, will needs dispute with him about religion, all attacking him with joint forces, some upon one article, some upon another; to whom he gave, sick as he was, so satisfactory answers, that though they would not open their eyes to behold the truth which he set before them, yet they could not help admiring his learning, and concluded that he was a more than ordinary man, perhaps a bishop, or at least a cunning Jesuit, sent upon some plot into the nation. But none of them all, though they saw him in such a plight with his fever and chain that he could neither rise out of bed nor turn himself in bed, had the Christianity to propose the easing him, at least for a time, of his chain and clog; such was the barbarity of the people in those days with regard to Catholics. Within ten days orders came from the Council that the prisoners should be removed to London; so Mr. Nutter and his companions were put into a waggon, and conveyed to town with a strong guard to attend them, from whose inhumanity Mr. Nutter suffered much in this journey, he being still violently ill and loaded with irons, and his guards contriving on purpose to carry him through the most rugged ways they could, for which they gave no other reason but that they did it to exercise his patience. After their arrival at London, Mr. Nutter and his companions were sent down to Richmond to be examined by Secretary Walsingham. Mr. Nutter was so ill that he could scarce either stand or speak; so that, after he had acknowledged that he was a Catholic priest, no more questions were asked him, but he was sent back to London and committed to the Marshalsea.

Here, by the blessing of God and the charitable help of some good Catholics, he quickly recovered, and he remained in this prison a whole year, where he did much good, reconciling many to the Catholic Church, and taking great pains in instructing them therein. And so zealous and indefatigable was he in this charitable work of his neighbours’ conversion and salvation, that though sometimes he seemed to spend a great deal of time in vain, and to lose his labour with regard to certain persons whom he had to deal with, he would never despond or leave ofT, but still persevered in praying earnestly to God, and using the best exhortations he could, till these stubborn hearts yielded at last to the Divine grace. Amongst those whom the man of God took the most pains with, there was one whom he could not, during life, bring to anything, but the same being one of the spectators of his death, was so moved thereby as to be quite changed into another man, and from that day resolved to live in that Church for which he saw this holy priest die with so much constancy.

Mr. JSlutter was also remarkably charitable to his enemies, and so far from seeking or desiring any revenge, as to be glad to do them kindness, which he showed in the case of those very men who had so lately grossly injured him at the time of his apprehension and bringing up to town; for they being prosecuted by the officers of the Marshalsea for unjustly detaining some clothes belonging to Mr. Conyers^ his fellow-prisoner, and justly fearing the consequence, applied to the Catholic prisoners, whom they had before treated with so much inhumanity, to beg of them to stop the prosecution; which, when Mr. Conyers seemed unwilling to consent to, unless they would be at the charges of the suit which was commenced, Mr. Nutter undertook to be an intercessor for his enemies, and, by his charitable remonstrances, prevailed with his fellow-prisoner to desist from his claim.

He was also a great rebuker of vice wheresoever he discovered it; which charity he exercised with that unaffected candour, simplicity, and sincerity, joined with a profound self-knowledge and humility, as to procure from his fellow-prisoners the name of John of Plain Dealing. In the m_ean time he was very severe to himself, treating his body roughly, not only by fastings and watchings, but also by frequent disciplines, which, though he industriously sought to conceal it, was discovered by one of his most intimate friends a little before his death. His lodging was very incommodious, in a poor hole in the garret or highest part of the prison; but he was well pleased with it, as being more remote from the noise, and therefore more proper for prayer and contemplation.

One day, when a certain priest was to be put in irons, and the jailors were fitting them to his legs and hands, Mr. Nutter., hearing of it, thrust himself into the company, and laying hold of the fetters, kissed them with great veneration; and when, in the way of ridiculing him, they asked him if he would not kiss the manacles too. Yes, said he, very willingly; and so he did with great respect, affirming that

JOHN NUTTER these irons were sanctified by the touch of the bodies of God’s servants who had been bound by them.

After Mr. Nutter had been about a year in the Marshalsea^ he was called to another examination, and had the usual questions put to him; to which he answered with great courage and resolution. At length they proceeded to that question which they usually proposed in the last place to those whom they designed to make away, viz., what he would do in case the Pope should invade the kingdom. To which he answered, that he would do as a good Catholic priest ought to do; and as he would not further satisfy them what that was, they would needs infer from hence that he was a traitor, at least in his heart.

The next day Mr. Nutter promised Mr. Popham^ the Attorney-general, to give him, in writing, a full and satisfactory answer to all things, if he, on his part, would engage his word to deliver this writing into the Queen’s own hands. Mr. Popham promising so to do, Mr. Nutter wrote a full account, as it is thought, of the true reasons that brought him and his fellow-priests over into England; which were not to disturb the peace of the kingdom or to plot against the Queen, but to invite their fellow-subjects to peace with God, and to promote the true and only solid interest of their Queen and country. This writing had no other effect than to hasten, perhaps, his trial and execution; for, immediately upon it, he was summoned to appear in Westminster Hall^ and was there tried and condemned, with four- other priests, on the 7th of February; and after lying in irons five days in the Tower, was drawn, together with the same four confessors, to Tyburn, and there hanged, cut down alive, bowelled, and quartered, February 12, 1583-84.

He was the fourth in that happy number to fight that last battle of his Lord; and his ghostly children who were present upon this occasion were not a little edified with that cheerfulness and serenity which appeared in his countenance, as well upon the hurdle as at the gallows, and that courage and constancy which he showed in his sufferings.

He suffered, says Mr. Wood in his Athence Oxonienses, for being a Roman Catholic priest, and denying the Queen’s supremacy.

G

JOHN MUNDExN, or MUNDYN, Priest *

Mr. MUNDEN was born at Maperton, in Dorsetshire, and educated in the University of Oxford, where he was admitted Fellow of New College in 1562, and had the character of being a very good civilian. Being discovered to be a Catholic, he was deprived of his Fellowship in 1566; and after many years, going abroad, he applied himself to the study of divinity at Rhemes, where he arrived in 1580; where, also, according to some authors, he was made priest; but in the account in Dr. Bridgewater of his examination before Secretary Walsingham, he answers that he was made priest at Rome, though he was not of the College or Seminary there; and I find him in the Doway Diary returning priest from Rome in 1582.

About the end of February 1582-83, as he was going up from Winchester to London, he met upon Hounslow Heath with one Mr. Hammond, a lawyer, who knowing him to be a priest, stopped him on the way, and obliged him to go back with him to Staines, where he delivered him up to the justices or magistrates of the place. These sent him to London, to Wolsey, the Latin secretary, who, the following day, sent him to Sir Francis Walsingham, principal Secretary of State⁵

The Secretary asked him where he was made priest; whether he were of any Seminary; who had sent him back into England; who had furnished him with money for his journeys, &c. To all which Mr. Munden returned a sincere answer. Then the Secretary inveighed most bitterly against the Seminarists, and against the translation of the New Testament lately published at Rhemes; and, as if he were resolved that Mr. Munden should pay for all these misdemeanours of the Seminaries, he began to propose to him the questions which were the common forerunners of death.

I St, What he thought of Dr. Saunders's going into Ireland? Mr. Munden answered, he knew not what Dr. Saunders went about, and therefore could not say whether he did right or wrong in going thither; let him answer for himself.

2dly, The Secretary asked him what he would do, or what any good subject ought to do, in case of an invasion of the kingdom upon account of religion; and what he thought of the deposing power?

Mr. Munden begged to be excused from answering questions that were above his capacity; for that, as his chief study had been the civil law, he was not divine enough to resolve such queries.

3dly, He asked whether he esteemed Queen Elizabeth to be the true Queen of England? He answered. Yes. But, said Walsingham^ do you allow her to be Queen as well de jure as de facto? I do not rightly understand, said Mr. Munden, the meaning of those terms. How now, traitor! said Walsingham, do you boggle at answering this } And therewithal gave him such a blow on one side of the head as perfectly stunned him and made him reel, so that for some days after he complained of a difficulty of hearing on that side. After this injury, and many other reproaches and affronts, the Secretary sent for a pursuivant, and ordered him to conduct Mr. Munden to the Tower, and to take his horse and furniture for his pains.

In the Tower he was at first very ill lodged, being put into irons for twenty days, and obliged for some time to lie upon the bare floor. However, he was not without comfort, as well interior from God, who forsakes not His servants on these occasions, as exterior from a good priest, a fellow-prisoner, his ghostly father, who also helped very much to support him and encourage him under another kind of trial which he here met withal, when, being called forth to be again examined by Popham, the Attorney-general, this gentleman, not contented with other injuries, charged him whh having led a lewd life in his own country; for although this was no more than a groundless calumny, Mr. Munden was, nevertheless, very much concerned at the accusation, not for his own sake, but for fear of the scandal that would by this means be cast upon religion; but the good man, his director, comforted him, putting him in mind of that beatitude in St. Matthew, ‘ Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and shall persecute you, and shall speak all kind of evil against you falsely for My sake; be glad and rejoice, for your reward is exceeding great in heaven.’ Adding withal, that the Prophets and Apostles, and even Christ our Lord Himself, had been calumniated and slandered; and that it was always the way, both of ancient and modern heretics, as he showed by examples, to seek to asperse in this manner the reputation of the ministers of God and of His true church; but that truth and innocence would, in these cases, sooner or later prevail, to the confusion of their enemies.

Mr. Munden was about a twelvemonth prisoner in the Tower before he was called to the bar to take his trial. But on the 6th and yth of February 1583-84, he was tried and condemned in West-minster Hall, at the same time, and for the same cause, with the other four whom we have last treated of. When sentence was pronounced upon him, he, with the rest of those holy men, joined in reciting the hymn Te Deurn laudamus with a serene and cheerful countenance; and so great was the inward joy he conceived in his soul upon this occasion that he could not help discovering it in his voice, in his face, and in the whole outward man. Some who had not been in the court that day, perceiving in him, when he returned to the Tower, that extraordinary alacrity, supposing he had been acquitted, congratulated with him; but he soon gave them to understand that his joy proceeded from other sort of principles than those of flesh and blood. This joy continued with him till his happy death; and when his confessor came to him the night before he was to suffer, he found him in the same disposition, enjoying so great a sweetness of internal consolation as to stand in no need of his comfort, but rather he who came to comfort him went away himself exceedingly comforted by him.

He was drawn with the rest to Tyburn, on the 12th of February according to Mr. Stow, or the 13th according to Dr. Bridgewater; and after having been the spectator of the combat of the other four, assisting them by his prayers, he in his turn had them, in heaven, spectators of his combat, and assisting him by their prayers; whilst with equal constancy he overcame gibbets, ropes, knives, and fire, and all the other instruments of cruelty, and so passed from short pains to everlasting rest.

This same year, 1584, several other Catholics suffered for religious matters, of whom Dr. Bridgewater treats at large in his Concertatio Ecclesice Catholicce. These were —

I. William Carter, a printer, for printing a Treatise of Schism, against Catholics going to the Protestant churches; in which a paragraph touching Judith and Holofernes, by a forced construction, was interpreted to be an exhortation to murder the Queen. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, January the nth, 1583-84.

H. James Bell, born at Warrington, in Lancashire, brought up in Oxford, and made priest in Queen Mary’s days, who, when the religion of the nation was changed upon Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the crown, suffered himself to be carried away with the stream against his conscience, and for many years officiated as a minister in divers parts of the kingdom. He was at length reclaimed, in 158.1, by the remonstrances of a Catholic matron, joined to a severe fit of sickness with which God was pleased to visit him, in which he was reconciled to God and His Church. He had no sooner recovered the health of his soul by confession, but he recovered also the health of his body; and after having applied himself for some months to penitential exercises, and brought forth fruits worthy of penance, he resumed his priestly functions, labouring with all diligence for the souls of his neighbours, for the space of about two years. In January 1583-84 he was apprehended by a pursuivant, and carried before a justice of peace, to whom he acknowledged himself to be a priest, and confessed that he had been reconciled to the Catholic Church, after having a long time gone astray; and therefore was by him committed to Manchester gaol. From hence he was sent to Lancaster to be tried at the Lent Assizes; in which journey his arms were tied behind him and his legs under the horse’s belly. He was arraigned, together with Mr. Thomas Williamson and Mr. Richard Hutton, priests, and Mr. John Finch, layman, all for the supremacy. Mr. Bell, in his trial, showed a great deal of courage and resolution, boldly professing that he had been reconciled to the Church, and, had faculties to absolve penitent sinners, and that he did not acknowledge the Queen’s ecclesiastical supremacy, but that of the Pope. In consequence of which supposed treasons, he had sentence to die as in cases of high treason. The other two priests were also found guilty by the jury, but as the judge had instructions to put to death no more than two, they were not sentenced to die, but only condemned to a perpetual imprisonment and loss of all their goods, as in cases of premunire. Mr. Bell showed great content upon this occasion, and looking at the judge said, I beg your Lordship would add to the sentence that my lips and the tops of my fingers may be cut off, for having sworn and subscribed to the articles of heretics, contrary both to my conscience and to God’s truth. He spent the following night, which was his last, in prayer and meditation, and suffered on the ensuing day, which was the 20th of April 1584, not only with great constancy, but with great joy, being then sixty years of age.

HI. John Finch, born in Eccleston parish, in Lancashire, who, after he was come to man’s estate, and was married and settled in the world, being heartily disgusted with the new religion, upon a long and serious examination of the merits of the cause, was reconciled to the Catholic Church, and was so fervent a convert as not only to neglect no means of sanctifying his own soul, but also to endeavour as much as he could to be instrumental in procuring the conversion and salvation of others, as well by his own words and good examples as by the assistance he gave to the labourers in God’s vineyard, in lOI whose service for many years he was wholly employed, accompanying them and conducting them to the houses of the faithful, where the duties of their functions called them, and serving them in quality both of a clerk and of a catechist. At length, by the treachery of a false brother, he was apprehended, together with Mr. George Ost cliff e^ a priest of Doway College, by the Earl of Derby. Mr. Finch being now a prisoner, they spared neither threats nor promises to induce him to go to church; which, when they could not persuade him to, they dragged him thither by downright violence through the streets, his head beating all the way upon the stones, and being thereby grievously broken and wounded; then they thrust him into a dark, stinking dungeon, where he had no other bed but the bare and wet floor; no other food but oxen’s liver, and that very sparingly. Here they kept him sometimes for whole weeks together — sometimes for whole months, not to speak of innumerable other sufferings which he endured for some years whilst he was in the hands of the enemies of his faith. At length he was ordered from Manchester to Lancaster to be tried for his life at the Lenten Assizes, where he was indicted for deliberately and maliciously affirming that the Pope hath power or jurisdiction in the kingdom of England, and that he is the head of the Catholic Church, of which Church some part is in this kingdom. Of this treason he was found guilty by the jury, and thereupon had sentence to die as in cases of high treason; which sentence he received with joy, having long desired to suffer death for the cause. He was executed the following day, April 20, with Mr. Bell, at Lancaster, and his quarters were disposed of to be set up on poles in four of the chief towns of that county.

IV. Richard White, born at Landtrilos, in Montgomeryshire of Wales, and brought up in Cambridge. HeTwas, after his return from the University, for some time a schoolmaster, first at Wrexham, and then at Orton in Flintshire, being all the while in his heart a Catholic, yet, by an error too common in those days, outwardly conforming so far as to frequent the Protestant churches, till the Doway missioners (of whom about sixty-four came over before there were any from other places) coming to those parts, made him sensible of his fault, and reconciled him to the Church. His absenting himself from the Protestant service began to be taken notice of, and after some time he was apprehended and committed by Justice Pilson to Ruthin gaol, where he lay for three months, loaded with double chains, till the next assizes, in which he was brought to the bar and had a proffer of pardon for all that was past if he would only once go to church, which he refusing, was again returned to prison.

The following year, the assizes being held at Wrexham in the month of May, Judge Bromley, being informed of all that was past, was resolved that Mr. White, who still refused to go to church, should be carried thither by force, which was done accordingly, Mr. White making all possible resistance, and loudly protesting all the way against the violence that was offered him, and in the church itself making what noise he could, that neither he nor any others might hear the minister; so that the judge, not being able to silence him, ordered him to be carried out and set in the stocks in the market-place. In the meantime an indictment was drawn up against him for having insolently and impiously, as they termed it, interrupted the minister and the people in the Divine service; and a jury being impanelled, Mr. White was brought into the court to answer for himself; when the clerk of the assizes beginning to read the indictment, such a sudden dimness fell upon his eyes that he could not distinguish one letter. The judge asked him what was the matter. He said, I do not know what is the matter with my eyes, but I cannot see. The judge put it off with a sneer, saying, Take care lest the Papists make a miracle of this. Mr. White was returned to prison, where, a short time after, he had two others sent to bear him company for the same cause — viz., Mr. John Pugh and Mr. Robert Morris. After some time they were all three arraigned for high treason, and sent away from Wrexham gaol to the Council of the Marches at Bewdley, where they were all cruelly tortured to make them discover by whom they had been reconciled, &c. Mr. White and Mr. Pugh showed great courage and constancy upon this occasion. Mr. Morris was not so stout, for which weakness he afterwards heartily repented. At length, on the nth of October 1584, they were all brought to their trial and indicted for high treason, the witnesses, who were infamous wretches suborned for the purpose, swearing that the prisoners had affirmed in their hearing that the Queen was not the head of the Church, but the Pope; and that they would have persuaded them, or one of them, to the Catholic religion. The prisoners excepted against their testimony, as of men that had been notoriously perjured before and publicly infamous; but these exceptions were not taken notice of, and the jury, instructed (as it seems) by Judge Bromley, brought in Mr. White and Mr. Pugh guilty, but acquitted Mr. Morris, who, to the surprise of the court, wept most bitterly at his hard lot, that he should not be so happy as to be condemned also, and to suffer with his companions for so good a cause. He was returned to prison, where he remained at the time that my author wrote his account of Mr. White's death.

Mr. Pugh was reprieved, but Mr. White suffered according to sentence, being cut down alive and butchered in a most cruel manner, pronouncing the sacred name of Jesus twice whilst the hangman had his hands in his bowels.

He suffered at Wrexham^ in Denbighshire^ October 17, 1584. His head and one of his quarters were set upon Denbigh Castle; the other three quarters were disposed of to Wrexham ^Ruthin ^ and H owlet.

Mr. John Rennet^ priest of Doway College, ordained in 1578, was also prisoner at the same time with Mr. White and Mr. Pugh, who, after he had been examined by Hughes, Bishop of St. Asaph, and by Judge Bromley, and had stoutly maintained his faith at Hawarden, in Flintshire, in 1583, was sent first to Flint (w^here he was cast into a filthy prison and loaded with double irons), and then to the Council of the Marches of Wales, where he was twice cruelly tortured in order to make him confess whom he had reconciled, &c. But they could extort nothing out of him. He was, not long after, sent up to London, and from thence, in the year 1585, was, with thirty other priests, sent into perpetual banishment. Upon this occasion he went straight to Rhemes, where for some time he lived with his brethren in the English College, then residing in that city, giving wonderful examples of virtue to all; and at length, going from thence, he entered into the Society of Jesus. With him also Mr. Henry Pugh, a Flintshire gentleman, was cast into prison, and cruelly tortured, as may be seen in Dr. Bridgewater.

I find likewise in an ancient catalogue of Doway College the names of several priests of the Seminaries who lost their lives this year in prison for their character and religion. These were Mr. Thomas Cotesmore, a native of the diocese of Lichfield, sent priest from Rhemes in 1580; Mr. Robert Holmes, of the diocese of Carlisle, sent priest from Rhemes the same year; Mr. Roger Wakeman, made priest at the same time with Mr. Nelson, and sent from Doway in 1576; Mr. James Lumax, a priest of Rome, sent thither from Rhemes in 1580. Of the three latter, the catalogue says that they were killed by the stench and other incommodities of their respective prisons. Pcedore carceris et aliis incommodis extincti sunt.

Of Mr. Wakeman, Dr. Bridgewater also relates, that being translated from one of the Counters to Newgate, and there lodged near a most stinking hole, where the prisoners emptied themselves and their chamber-pots, he suffered much during two whole years, till at last he was killed with the stench of the place.

The same author, in the same place, relates likewise of Mr. Holmes, that falling into the hands of the persecutors, he was kept prisoner for two months in a certain dark hole designed for keeping coals, which had on both sides of it houses of office; that lying here on the bare floor, without any bed, he was brought to death’s door; and though, at the earnest suit of his friends, he was changed to a more commodious prison, yet, being too far gone to be recovered, he died within two days.

In the same place he also informs us of Mr. Ailworth^ a secular gentleman, who, for his constancy in his faith, was not only cast into prison, and there put into irons, but also thrust down by the jailor into a nasty dungeon, or rather a common sewer, where he perished by the stench within eight days.

The same author, in his Short View of the Sufferings of the Catholics^ at the end of his Concertatio, acquaints us that in this same year, 1584, no less than fifty Catholic gentlemen’s houses in Lancashire were searched in one night under pretence of looking for priests, but so as to plunder the houses and send away the masters to divers prisons, where they suffered great hardships for their faith. My author names particularly Mr. Travas^ Mr. Holland y and Mr. Barlow — the last of whom was, at that very time, so ill as not to be able to sit upon his horse, yet this could not dispense him from being sent to prison. And, indeed, such was the case of the Catholics at this time, not only in Lancashire ^ but all over the kingdom, that the gaols were everywhere filled with them, and that barely for their recusancy, insomuch that the old prisons not being sufficient to hold them, new ones were built in many places; and all this for people whose conscience was their only crime.

Footnotes

1. Ven. George Haydock. — From Bridgewater’s Concertatio, fol. 133 and from the Journals and other Memoirs of Douay College; see also Diarium Turris; J. Gillow, Haydock Papers; C.R.S., v.; Lives of E. M.; Acts of E. M. ↩

2. Ven. James Fenn. — From Bridgewater, fol. \'iy Athence Oxon., etc.; Lives of E. M.; Acts of E. M. ↩

3. Ven. Thomas Hemerford. — From Athence Oxon., Douay Records, and Bridgewater’s Concertatio; C.R.S., v.; Lives of E. M. ↩

4. Ven. John Nutter. — From Athems Oxon., Douay Diary, and Bridge-water’s Concertatio, fol. 156; Diarium Turris; Gillow, Lives of E. M. ↩

5. Ven. John Munden, or Mundyn. — From Athence Oxon., Douay Memoirs, and Bridgewater’s fob 139; C.R.S,,y; Lives of E.M, ↩