The Year 1618

WILLIAM SOUTHERNE, Priest *

He was an alumnus and priest of the English College of Doway, and the last that suffered in the reign of King James the First. I have met with but few particulars relating to the life and death of this holy man. Raissius in his Catalogue of the priests of Doway College who have suffered in England, printed at Doway, 1630, p. 82, informs us from the letters which the college had re-¹ i6i8]

WILLIAM SOUTHERNE ceived from persons of undoubted credit on the spot, that this apostolic priest during his mission was mostly employed in converting and assisting the poor. That being apprehended, he was condemned to die for being a priest; that he refused the oath of allegiance; that when the sentence of death was pronounced upon him, he fell upon his knees and gave hearty thanks to God. That after condemnation he was forced to lie in a dark and loathsome dungeon for six days, because no one could be found during that time who would perform the office of the hangman. That he suffered at Newcastle; and that his head being set up on a spear on one of the town gates, was for some days after by many observed to smile.

Mr. Knaresborough in his Manuscript Collections adds, ‘ That he has been told that Mr. Southerners mission lay chiefly among the poorer sort of Catholics at Bassage, in Stajfordshire^ an estate belonging to the Fowlers of St. Thomas; and that he was seized at the altar, and hurried away in his vestments to a neighbouring Justice of Peace who committed him to Stafford gaol; and this happening at the beginning of the assizes, he was immediately prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced. That he was carried to Newcastle-underLyme, 2ind^2i'S>th.QYQ?,tr2L.n^t6. and butchered according to sentence. That his head is said to have been brought back to Stafford and fixed upon a spear on one of the gates in terrorem.^

He suffered April 30, 1618.

About the end of July of this same year (as we learn from the Doway Diary), upon occasion of the treaty of marriage which was then on foot between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain, at the intercession of the Spanish ambassador, no less than sixty priests, who were confined in divers prisons throughout the kingdom, were permitted to exchange their prisons for perpetual banishment, and were transported beyond the seas.

From the year 1618 till the death of lAing James the First, who died March the 27th, 1625, I have not met with any mention of priests or others put to death in England for the Catholic religion; unless we suppose Father Thomas Dyer, monk of the venerable Order of St. Bennet, to have suffered in this interval. Certain it is, that he suffered some time before the year 1630, because he has place in Raissius’s Catalogue published in that year; and as he there is set down after Father Maurus Scot, who was executed in 1612, I suppose that he suffered between the years 1612 and 1630. But where, or when in particular it was, I have not found; nor anything else relating either to his life or death.

Whilst the match with Spain was in agitation, the Catholics flattered themselves with hopes of being more mildly treated; and we learn from RushwortK s collections (vol. i. p. 14), that the King, upon being informed that the Court of Spain ^ before they would consent to make any advance in that affair, expected he should propose some conditions in favour of his Catholic subjects, despatched over (anno 1620) Sir Walter Ashton with a letter to the King of Spain^ ‘ promising on the word of a king, that no priest or lay Catholic should thenceforth be condemned on any capital law; and that as to the laws inflicting pecuniary mulcts for recusancy^ though he could not at present rescind them, yet he promised so to mitigate their execution, as thereby to oblige his Catholic subjects. And farther, if the marriage should take effect, he promised his daughter-in-law should find him ready to indulge all favours which she should request for those of her religion.’

But though the persecution upon this occasion relented, this intermission or remission was not of any long continuance; for in the year 1623 the match was entirely broken off, and the laws were ordered to be put in execution against all priests and Papists recusants. Many priests were apprehended and committed to prison; the lay-gentlemen were obliged all over the kingdom to pay their fyzo per month for their recusancy, and the poorer sort their shilling every Sunday; and as to all other pains and penalties, death only excepted, the persecuting statutes were executed for the remainder of this reign with as much severity* as in any part of Queen EizahetKs days.

In the year 1624, Dr. William Bishop, titular Bishop of Chalcedon, departed this life in the seventy-first year of his age, leaving behind him this character. That he was both generally esteemed and loved, both by the laity and clergy, as well secular as regular. That he was a person of an apostolic spirit and life, who had both laboured and suffered very much in the cause of the faith; having been twice imprisoned, and as often banished for his religion; which he had also maintained by divers learned tracts against Mr. Perkins and Dr. Abbot. He was the son of John Bishop, Esq., of Broyles, in the county of Warwick; was sent to the University of Oxford in the year 1570, where he was a student in Gloucester Hall. But after three or four years’ studying there, being dissatisfied with the Protestant religion, he not only left the university, but also his estate, relations,

I have by me copies of several letters, representing the most cruel treatment of the Catholics at this time, especially in the North.

WILLIAM SOUTHERNE i6i8]

and country, and went over to the college lately instituted at Doway. Here and at Rhemes he spent some years, and was then sent to Rome*^ and after some time upon the English mission. Immediately upon his landing in England he was apprehended and imprisoned, and some time after sent into banishment in 1585. Upon this occasion he went to Paris^ and there having gone through the usual exercises of the schools, he was made doctor of Sorbon; and after divers years more spent in apostolical labours upon the mission, and a second • imprisonment and banishment, he was at length, by Pope Urban VIII., in 1622, created Bishop of Chalcedon. He died in or near London, Apr ilxht 13th, 1624; and was succeeded by Dr. Richard Smith, In a manuscript relation concerning this great man, kept in the archives of the English College of Doway, there is this remarkable history of him. That upon his last return into England, after he was consecrated Bishop in Flanders, he was privately advised by a principal magistrate, one of the King’s Privy Council (considering the present disposition of the Parliament and the fury of the Puritan faction, continually making remonstrances against the growth of Popery), to delegate his authority to some others in quality of his vicars, and to retire beyond the seas, at least for a time, till the storm blew over. But that he returned this generous answer, worthy of a Basil, or an Ambrose: That he was not afraid of the threats of the Parliament; that as he had twice already suffered imprisonment for Christ, he was very willing to suffer it a third time; or if they should order anything worse for him, he was ready to undergo it. That he did not come into England with a disposition to run away, as soon as he should see the wolf coming; but rather as a good shepherd, to lay down his life for his sheep.

After the decease of King James the First, his son Charles, the first of that name, ascended the throne. This prince in his own nature seems not to have been inclined to persecution, at least not so far as to come to the shedding of blood for religion; yet such was the iniquity of the times, and the importunity of the Parliaments, ever complaining of the growth of Popery, and urging the execution of the laws, that he gave way to all manner of severities against his Catholic subjects, and issued out proclamation upon proclamation for the executing the laws against them. So that the generality of Catholics had a very bad time of it under his government. The first that suffered death by the penal statutes under this King was — * By the Douay Diary he was made priest at Laon in May, 1583.

Footnotes

1. Ven. William Southerne. — From Arnoldus Raissius’s Catalogue of the Douay Martyrs; see also Chalcedon’s Catalogue and Knaresborough MSS.; The Albanian. ↩