dimanche 7 avril 2019

Bienheureux RALPH ASHLEY, prêtre jésuite et martyr


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Bienheureux Ralph Ashley


Martyr ( 1606)


Anglais, il a servi au collège de Douai puis à Valladolid, Espagne. Il rejoint la Société de Jésus en 1590 et retourne en Angleterre en 1598.
Il est arrêté avec le père Edward Oldcorne en 1604 comme complice d'un présumé complot contre le Parlement. Torturé, écartelé, il meurt le 7 avril 1606.
Béatifié par le Pape Pie IX le 15 décembre 1929.

À Winchester, en Angleterre, l'an 1606, les bienheureux martyrs Edouard Oldcorne, prêtre, et Raoul Ashley, religieux de la Compagnie de Jésus, qui exercèrent leur ministère en cachette pendant de nombreuses années mais, accusés faussement de complot contre le roi Jacques Ier, ils furent mis en prison, torturés et enfin pendus et dépecés, alors qu'ils respiraient encore.
Martyrologe romain

Ven. Ralph Ashley

Martyr and Jesuit lay-brother; first heard of, it seems, as cook at Douay College, which he left 28 April, 1590, for the English College at Valladolid. Here he entered the Society of Jesus, but after a time returned to England because of ill-health. He fell in with Father Tesimond (Greenway), who eulogizes very highly the courage he had displayed among the Dutch heretics, by whom he had been captured during his journey. He landed in England 9 March, 1598, and was sent to serve Father Edward Oldcorne. Eight years later the two were arrested at Hindlip, near Worcester, and were committed to the Tower, together with Father Garnet, and Nicholas Owen, another lay brother, servant to Garnet. The two servants were terribly tortured, Owen dying of his torments, while the reticent answers and trembling signatures of Ashley's extant confessions bear eloquent testimony to his constancy. He was ultimately remanded with Oldcorne to Worcester, where they were tried, condemned and executed together, 7 April, 1606, giving an admirable example of heroically faithful service.
Ryan, Patrick W.F. "Ven. Ralph Ashley." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 7 Apr. 2019 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01776d.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul T. Crowley. Dedicated to the Sacred Heart.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Ralph Ashley SJ

Ralph Ashley is first recorded working as a cook at the college in Douai. On 28th April 1590, he left for the English College, Valladolid, and became a Jesuit lay-brother. In 1598, he returned to England to serve Father Edward Oldcorne SJ. Eight years later in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, he and Oldcorne were arrested at Hindlip Hall near Worcester and committed to the Tower of London. Ashley patiently and constantly endured all the tortures inflicted on him without revealing any person or place of his master’s acquaintance. They were both remanded and tried for treasonin Worcester, condemned and executed on 7th April 1606 at Red Hill. When Ashley came to die he prayed and asked for forgiveness and noted that like Oldcorne he was dying for his religion and not for being a traitor. Prior to his execution, his last words were, “What a happy man am I to follow the steps of my Father unto death.” Ralph Ashley was beatified in 1929. 

Blessed Ralph Ashley


Profile

Worked as a cook at Douay College. Entered the English College at Valladolid on 28 April 1590where he became a Jesuit lay brotherIll health forced him to leave college and return to England. Along the way he was captured by Dutch heretics; he stood up to them and explained their errors. Finally landed in England on 9 March 1598.

Servant and assistant to Blessed Edward OldcorneArrested on 23 January 1606 at Hindlip House, near Worcester, England in connection with the Gunpowder Plot, and for the crime of helping a priest. Transferred to the Tower of London on 3 February 1606 along with Father Garnet and SaintNicholas OwenTortured for information on other Catholics and for the hiding places of priests. When they could get no information from him, he was transferred to Worcester, and condemned for his faithMartyr.


April 7, 1606: Blessed Edward Oldcorne and Ralph Ashley, SJ

 Two Jesuits suffered martyrdom on April 7, 1606 in connection with the Gunpowder Plot early in James I's reign--although they had no involvement with the Plot, the fact that they were companions and associates of Father Henry Garnet--and in fact, were captured with him after hiding for days in different hiding places within Hindlip Hall. Also captured that day was the designer and builder of those hiding places, Jesuit lay brother Nicholas Owen. The two lay brothers were in one hiding place and the two priests in another. The pursuivants could not find them--searching the house for days--but they finally had to leave their sanctuaries becauce of hunger and thirst. The illustration at the right shows Father Oldcorne and Owen enduring torture.

Blessed Edward Oldcorne was a Jesuit priest, ordained in Rome, Italy, and received into the Society in 1587. Worked in the English mission in Worcestershire for 16 years. Father Edward developed throat cancer, but kept preaching through the pain. He made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Winifred of Wales in Flintshire to seek a cure; his cancer healed, and he returned strong and healthy to his vocation.

Edward fell victim to the revenge following the Gunpowder Plot, a foolish conspiracy hatched by a small group of frustrated Catholic Englishmen to blow up the king and parliament. All it did was provide an excuse for renewed persecution of Catholics, especially Jesuits. Edward was arrested, falsely accused, and tortured on the rack for five days for information about the Plot. He was hung, drawn and quartered on April 7, 1607 with Blessed Ralph Ashley, SJ.

Blessed Ralph Ashley worked as a cook at Douai College. Entered the English College at Valladolid on 28 April 1590 where he became a Jesuit lay brother. Ill health forced him to leave college and return to England. Along the way he was captured by Dutch heretics; he stood up to them and explained their errors. Finally landed in England on 9 March 1598.
Servant and assistant to Blessed Edward Oldcorne. Arrested on 23 January 1606 at Hindlip House, near Worcester, England in connection with the Gunpowder Plot, and for the crime of helping a priest. Transferred to the Tower of London on 3 February 1606 along with Father Henry Garnet and Saint Nicholas Owen. Tortured for information on other Catholics and for the hiding places of priests. When they could get no information from him, he was transferred to Worcester, and condemned for his faith.

Of the four Jesuits captured at Hindlip Hall, three were recognized as martyrs by the Catholic Church and beatified or canonized. The torture and questioning of the two lay Jesuit brothers, St. Nicholas Owen and Blessed Ralph Ashley, was focused on discovering more hiding places like the ones the four Jesuits had been hiding in at Hindlip Hall. Owen died as a result of the torture meted out to him. Blessed Edward Oldcorne, because he was found with Garnet, was questioned about the plot. Father Henry Garnet has not been proclaimed a martyr by the Church, I presume because of questions about his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. According to the old Catholic Encyclopedia (1909): 

It is a matter of regret that we have as yet nothing like an authoritative pronouncement from Rome on the subject of Garnet's martyrdom. His name was indeed proposed with that of the other English Martyrs and Confessors in 1874, and his cause was then based upon the testimonies of Bellarmine and the older Catholic writers, which was the correct plea for the proof of Fama Martyrii, then to be demonstrated. But these ancient authorities are not acquainted with Garnet's actual confessions which were not known or published in their time. The consequence was that, as the discussion proceeded, their evidence was found to be inconclusive, and an open verdict was returned; thus his martyrdom was held to be neither proved nor disproved. This of course led to his cause being "put off" (dilatus) for further inquiry, which involves in Rome a delay of many years. 

"A delay of many years" indeed.



Walpole and Rawlins; Oldcorne and Ashley

Four martyrs on April 7: two in 1595 and two more in 1606:

St. Henry Walpole, who is one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales canonized in 1970, was influenced by the martyrdom of St. Edmund Campion to become a priest and return to England as a Jesuit missionary (drops of blood from Campion's torturous death fell on Walpole):

According to this blog, after studying for the priesthood on the Continent, becoming a Jesuit, and enduring imprisonment while serving English Catholics in the Spanish Netherlands, Walpole returned to England on December 4, 1593 and was betrayed and captured almost immediately.

One night of freedom in England was followed by 16 months of imprisonment. Walpole admitted during his first interrogation that he was a Jesuit and had come to England to convert people. He was transferred to York Castle for three months, and was permitted to leave the prison to discuss theology with Protestant visitors. Then he was transferred to the Tower of London at the end of February, 1594, so that the notorious priest-torturer Richard Topcliffe could wrest information from him. 

Walpole was tortured brutally on the rack and was suspended by his wrists for hours, but Topcliffe stretched the tortures out over the course of a year to prevent an accidental death. Walpole endured torture 14 different times before being returned in 1595 to York to stand trial under the law that made it high treason for an Englishman simply to return home after receiving Holy Orders abroad. The man who had once aspired to be a lawyer defended himself ably, pointing out that the law only applied to priests who had not given themselves up to officials within three days of arrival. He himself had been arrested less than a day after landing in England, so he had not violated that law. The judges responded by demanding that he take the Oath of Supremacy, acknowledging the queen's complete authority in religion. He refused to do so and was convicted of high treason. 

On April 7, Walpole was dragged out of York to be executed along with another priest who was killed first. Then the Jesuit climbed the ladder to the gallows and asked the onlookers to pray with him. After he finished the Our Father but before he could say the Hail Mary, the executioner pushed him away from the ladder; then he was taken down and dismembered. The Jesuits in England lost a promising young priest whom they had hoped would take the place of Father Southwell; they received another example of fidelity and courage. 

Blessed Alexander Rawlins:

Alexander was born in Worcestershire, England, where he was jailed twice for his fervent Catholicism. In 1589 he went to the English seminary in Reims and was ordained there in 1590. Returning to England the following year (with another future martyr and saint, Father Edmund Gennings), Alexander was arrested. He was condemned to death and on April 7, 1595, and along with Henry Walpole was hanged, drawn, and quartered in York, England. He was beatified in 1929.

For the stories of Blessed Edward Oldcorne and Blessed Ralph Ashley, click here. They were arrested, tortured, and executed in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot during the reign of James I.

Saint Henry Walpole, Blessed Alexander Rawlins, Blessed Edward Oldcorne, Blessed Ralph Askley, pray for us.




Blessed Edward Oldcorne & Ralph Ashley, SJ MM (AC)

Died 1606; beatified in 1929. Edward Oldcorne was born in York, ordained for the priesthood in Rome, and received into the Society of Jesus in 1587. He worked in the Midlands from 1588 until his arrest. He was condemned to death at Worcester for alleged complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. Ralph Ashley was a Jesuit lay- brother who was martyred with Fr. Oldcorne, whom he was attending (Benedictines).


Beato Randolfo Ashley Religioso gesuita, martire



† Worcester, Inghilterra, 7 aprile 1606

Durante gli socntri tra il nascente anglicanesimo ed il cattolicesimo, furono uccisi in odio alla loro fede, per non aver voluto riconoscere la supremazia regia in ambito religioso, il sacerdote secolare Edoardo Oldcorne ed il religioso gesuita Randolfo Ashley. Entrambi furono beatificati nel 1929, unitamente ad un folto gruppo dei martiri inglesi e gallesi.

Martirologio Romano: A Worcester sempre in Inghilterra, beati martiri Edoardo Oldcorne, sacerdote, e Rodolfo Ashley, religioso della Compagnia di Gesù, che esercitarono clandestinamente per molti anni il loro ministero, finché, sotto la falsa accusa di cospirazione contro il re Giacomo I, furono gettati in carcere, torturati e infine tagliati a pezzi ancora vivi.