Bienheureux Jacques Bell et Jean Finch, martyrs
A Lancastre, en Angleterre, le prêtre Jacques Belle et l'agriculteur père de famille Jean Finch se réconcilièrent avec l'Eglise catholique après être tombés dans le schisme anglican. Emprisonnés de longues années, ils furent condamnés finalement à mourir de faim sous Elisabeth Ière en 1584.
Bienheureux Jacques Bell et Jean Finch
Martyrs anglais (+ 1584)
James Bell ordonné prêtre anglican servit pendant 20 ans avant de retrouver la foi catholique en 1581, arrêté de ce fait en 1584.
Jean Finch était un agriculteur d'Eccleston dans le Lancashire qui hébergeait des prêtres et enseignait le catéchisme.
Béatifiés en 1929.
À Lancaster en Angleterre, l’an 1584, les bienheureux martyrs Jacques Bell et Jean Finch. Le premier, prêtre, passa vingt ans dans la confession anglicane contre sa science et sa conscience, puis, sur l’exhortation d’une pieuse femme, se réconcilia avec l’Église catholique; le second, père de famille, paysan et catéchiste, passa de nombreuses années en prison à cause de sa foi catholique et supporta la faim et d’autres tourments; tous les deux furent condamnés à mort, sous le reine Élisabeth Ière, et menés à la potence.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11630/Bienheureux-Jacques-Bell-et-Jean-Finch.html
Blessed James Bell and John Finch MM (AC)
Died Lancaster, England, in 1584; beatified in 1929. This is another pair of martyrs for the faith in England. James was born in Warrington, Lancashire, and educated at Oxford. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest during the reign of Queen Mary, but converted to Anglicanism under her sister. Unable to reconcile his conscience with his actions, he rejoined the Catholic Church and for this he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at age 64. John Finch, a yeoman farmer of Eccleston, Lancashire, was similarly hanged for being reconciled to the Church and harboring priests (Attwater2, Benedictines).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0420.shtml
Blessed James Bell
- 20 April
- 1 December as one of the Martyrs of Oxford University
Profile
Educated at Oxford University. Priest. Though he resisted the Reformation changes at
first, he eventually conformed to the rules of the state church under Queen Elizabeth, and served as a minister in the
Church of England for 20 years. Taken to task by a Catholic woman for abandoning his vows, he returned to
his Catholic faith and spent two years ministering to impoverished,
covert Catholics. Martyred with Blessed John Finch.
Born
hanged in 20 April 1584 at Lancaster, England
- 8 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree of martyrdom)
Additional Information
- Catholic
Encyclopedia
- Dictionary
of National Biography
- Lives of the English Martyrs, by Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B.
- Memoirs of Missionary Priests, by Bishop Richard Challoner
- books
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Our Sunday Visitor’s
Encyclopedia of Saints
- other
sites in english
- sitios
en español
- Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
- fonti
in italiano
- Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
- Santi e
Beati
MLA Citation
- “Blessed James
Bell“. CatholicSaints.Info. 4 January 2020. Web. 12 February
2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-james-bell/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-james-bell/
James Bell
Priest and martyr, b. at Warrington in Lancashire, England, probably about 1520; d. 20 April, 1584. For the little known of him we depend on the account published four years after his death by Bridgewater in his "Concertatio" (1588), and derived from a manuscript which was kept at Douay when Challoner wrote his "Missionary Priests" in 1741, and is now in the Westminster Diocesan Archives. A few further details were collected by Challoner, and others are supplied by the State Papers. Having studied at Oxford he was ordained priest in Mary's reign, but unfortunately conformed to the established Church under Elizabeth, and according to the Douay manuscript "ministered their bare few sacraments about 20 years in diverse places of England". Finally deterred by conscience from the cure of souls and reduced to destitution, he sought a small readership as a bare subsistence. To obtain this he approached the patron's wife, a Catholic lady, who induced him to be reconciled to the Church. After some time he was allowed to resume priestly functions, and for two years devoted himself to arduous missionary labours. He was at length apprehended (17 January 1583-84) and, having confessed his priesthood, was arraigned at Manchester Quarter-Sessions held during the same month, and sent for trial at Lancaster Assizes in March. When condemned and sentenced he said to the Judge: "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 that night in prayer and on the following day was hanged and quartered together with Ven. John Finch, a layman, 20 April, 1584.
Sources
BRIDGEWATER, Concertatio ecclesiæ Catholicæ in Anglia, 1588; YEPEZ, Historia particular de la persecucion de Inglatera, 1599; CHALLONER, Missionary Priests 1741; Dict. Nat. Biog., IV, 163; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., I, 173, citing State Papers in Public Record Office.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. In memory of Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio — Fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02411a.htm
Dictionary
of National Biography – James Bell
Article
Bell, James (1524-1584), Catholic priest, born at
Warrington in Lancashire, in 1524, was educated at Oxford, where he was
ordained priest in Queen Mary’s reign. For some time he refused to conform to
the alterations in religion made by Queen Elizabeth; but afterwards, adopting
the tenets of the Reformation, he exercised the functions of a minister of the
church of England for twenty years, and was beneficed in several parts of the
kingdom. In 1581 he applied to a lady to solicit her good offices to procure
for him a small readership, of which her husband was the patron. This lady,
being a catholic, upbraided him with his cowardice, and exhorted him to lead a
life in accordance with his sacred profession. Moved by her words he sought
reconciliation with the catholic church, and laboured zealously as a priest for
two years among the poorer class of Catholics. In January 1583-4 he was
apprehended by a pursuivant, and was brought to trial at the Lent assizes at
Lancaster. He behaved with great courage, and on being convicted said to the
judge: ‘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 was executed
at Lancaster on 20
April 1584.
John Finch, a layman,
suffered at the same time and place for being reconciled to the catholic
church, and denying the queen’s spiritual supremacy.
MLA Citation
Thompson Cooper. “James Bell”. Dictionary of National Biography, 1890. CatholicSaints.Info.
31 December 2019. Web. 12 February 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-james-bell/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-james-bell/
Lives
of the English Martyrs – Venerable James Bell
Article
Secular Priest. Lancaster, 20 April 1584.
A special interest attaches to this martyr inasmuch as
he is one of the very few Marian priests who were executed for the faith,
though many suffered imprisonment.
He was born at Warrington in Lancashire about 1520 and
completed his studies at Oxford. If, as is most probable, he was a member of
the University no record of his academic career has been preserved. The
particulars given by Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, apply to James Bell, a
Protestant Prebendary of Wells who died in 1596. He was ordained priest in
Queen Mary’s reign, but when the change of religion came under Elizabeth he
unhappily had not the courage to become a confessor of the faith, but continued
for more than twenty years to act as an Anglican minister in different parts of
England. It is a singular fact, having regard to the great dearth of clergymen,
that he never obtained a benefice; and one may hope that he still retained some
scruples of conscience, which prevented him from accepting even a nominal cure
of souls. This is confirmed by the statement in the early account of his
conversion, apprehension and martyrdom, where he is described as “being in part
a Catholic, and not minded to serve at any parish church or other place of
greater charge”. At the age of sixty, having no other means of subsistence and
being in failing health he returned to his native county of Lancashire, where
he tried to obtain the chaplaincy of a certain chapel without the cure of
souls. There for a very small stipend he would only be required to read the
English service, and thus would be able to secure a poor living for his old
age. To obtain this post he applied to the wife of the gentleman who had the
nomination to the readership. She was a Catholic, and knowing him to be a
priest, she earnestly exhorted him to abandon his project and return to the
Church. “She put him in mind that he was made priest to say Mass and to
minister the sacraments after the Catholic use and manner in the unity of the
Catholic Church.” At first her exhortations had little effect, but he soon fell
ill and had leisure on his sick-bed to reflect on his friend’s advice. She
visited him in his sickness and continued the persuasions with such effect that
at length he resolved to abandon his schismatical life and to resume his
ministry as a Catholic priest. Within a few hours of this resolution the lady
brought to him a priest who reconciled him to the Church. On his recovery he
proved the truth of his conversion by devoting himself to several months of
severe penance. He again set himself to learn the recitation of the Office and
the forgotten ceremonies of the Mass, and after some months he was allowed once
more to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
During the years 1582 and 1583 he acted as a
missionary priest, devoting himself with zeal to labour among the poorer
classes of Catholics. At length, as he was travelling on foot from one Catholic
house to another, he had occasion to inquire his way to a certain town.
Unfortunately the wayfarer whom he asked happened to be a spy, and suspecting the
old man to be a priest he asked him whence he came and whither he was going. On
the martyr’s refusal to tell him, the spy asked him what he was, and received
the straightforward reply that he was a priest. Immediately arresting him the
spy carried him before a Justice of the Peace, to whom Mr. Bell repeated his
confession, adding that very lately he had received authority to hear
confessions and to absolve, and that the same authority came from the Pope.
When required to attend the Protestant church he utterly refused, lamenting
bitterly that for so many years he had said or heard their schismatical
service. Accordingly he was sent to Manchester where he was imprisoned. His
arrest took place in January, 1584, and his name occurs in the list of five
priests who were brought before the ecclesiastical commissioners in January and
February of that year. While in prison he was frequently examined as to his own
reconciliation and that of others, the supremacy of the Pope and the spiritual
claims of the Queen, the bull of excommunication and similar points. His
answers have not been recorded, but he was so resolute that he was sent to the
Lancaster General Sessions to be tried at the Lent assizes. He was taken there
on horseback, his arms being pinioned and his legs bound under the horse. On
arrival at Lancaster he was again examined before two justices named Huddleston
and Parker. On Wednesday, 18 April 1584, he was indicted and arraigned with
Venerable John Finch, a layman, and two other priests, Thomas Williamson and
Richard Hatton.
When the four prisoners were brought to the bar they
were charged with affirming the Pope to be head of the Catholic Church and that
part of the Church which is in England. As Mr. Bell was deaf he did not hear
all that was said to him, so, as he did not always reply, the Judge and others
thought that his constancy was failing. Accordingly, on the following day,
after examining John Finch, they called him to the bar and tried to terrify him
into submission. Standing among thieves and murderers he heard unmoved their
description of the manner of death in store for him. Finally they asked him
whether he had been reconciled or not. He admitted the fact. “Oh, that is High
Treason.” “It is nothing else than the Holy Sacrament of Penance,” he replied.
One of the Judges asked: “Hast thou authority to reconcile?” “I have
authority,” he answered, “to absolve from sins.” “What, canst thou forgive
sins?” “Aye, that I can, to him that will confess his sins and be truly
penitent for them.” This provoked the merriment of the Court, whereon the
martyr said: “Why, I forgive not sins by mine own power, but because I am a
priest and so have authority to absolve from sins”. And then, continues the
account of the trial, “they laughed and scorned as though the good old man had
answered absurdly, and would not suffer him to declare his authority more at
large”.
The Judge then asked him whether the Queen were
supreme governor in all causes in England, as well ecclesiastical as temporal.
“No,” he replied, “for she hath not to judge in spiritual causes and matters of
faith; but the Pope is to deal in those matters, and under him bishops and
priests.” Then came the fateful question: “Whose part wouldst thou take, if the
Pope or any other by his authority should make wars against the Queen?” “We
ought,” said the martyr, “to take part with the Church of God for the Catholic
religion.” This was enough and the Judge called the other two priests whose
answers were equally staunch, but who seem to have made some reservation as to
temporal authority, for the Judge drew a distinction between them and Finch and
Bell. “You are rank traitors too, and do deserve to be hanged as well as the
rest; for you deny the one half of her Majesty’s right, but these other
traitors do deny her all.” The jury brought in a verdict of guilty against all
four, but the Judge again distinguished between them in his sentence, for
whereas he sentenced James Bell and John Finch to death, he sentenced the
others to loss of goods and perpetual imprisonment as in the case of
praemunire, for denying for the first time the Queen’s authority in causes
spiritual. Owing to his deafness Mr. Bell did not understand which sentence
applied to him, but one of the sheriff’s men repeated his doom, whereon the
martyr thanked God very cheerfully, and turning to the Judge said: “I beseech
you, my Lord, for the love of God, add also to your former sentence that my
lips may be pared and my fingers’ ends cut off, wherewith I have heretofore
sworn and subscribed to heretical articles and injunctions, both against my
conscience and the truth”.
The executions were fixed for the following day and
the two martyrs spent the night together in prayer and meditation and
endeavours to convert the other condemned prisoners to the Catholic faith. The
priest heard his companion’s confession and so they prepared to meet their
death. When morning dawned our martyr blessed God and thanked Him, saying: “O
blessed day, O the fairest day that ever I saw in my life”. When a minister
there present addressed him he asked him not to trouble him, “for I will not
believe thee, nor hear thee, but against my will”.
When he was taken off the hurdle at the place of
execution, they made him look at Venerable John Finch who was being quartered.
As the martyr looked on the sight he exclaimed: “Oh, why do I tarry so long
behind my sweet brother; let me make haste after him. This is a most happy
day.” And so he began his prayers, interceding both for all Catholics and for
the conversion of all others.
Source
Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B. “Venerable James Bell”. Lives of the English Martyrs, 1914. CatholicSaints.Info.
31 December 2019. Web. 12 February 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/lives-of-the-english-martyrs-venerable-james-bell/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/lives-of-the-english-martyrs-venerable-james-bell/
Memoirs of
Missionary Priests – James Bell
Article
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 1581, 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 1583-1584 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.
Source
Bishop Richard
Challoner. “James Bell”. Memoirs of Missionary
Priests, 1924. CatholicSaints.Info.
31 December 2019. Web. 12 February 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/memoirs-of-missionary-priests-james-bell/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/memoirs-of-missionary-priests-james-bell/
Blessed John Finch
Profile
Yoeman farmer. Raised in a family with Catholic and Protestant members, he
was able to closely observe each side; John became a strong and faithful Catholic. Married layman. His home became a center for covert missionary work, and he hid and
harboured priests. Parish clerk and catechist.
On Christmas 1581 he and Father George Ostliffe were ambushed and arrested. Finch was kept prisoner in the house of the Earl
of Derby, alternately tortured and offered bribes to get
information about covert Catholics; the authorities spread the story
that he had turned in Father George himself, was taking refuge with
Derby, and was voluntarily giving up the name of every Catholic he knew. John spent time in
the Fleet prison, Manchester, and in the House of Correction, spending months
in dungeons, being dragged by his heels to Protestant churches. He and
three priests were brought to trial for
their faith in Lancaster on 18 April 1584. While waiting execution, he ministered to condemned
felons in his cell. Martyred with James Bell.
Born
- 8 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree of martyrdom)
Additional Information
- Catholic
Encyclopedia
- books
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Our Sunday Visitor’s
Encyclopedia of Saints
- other
sites in english
- sitios
en español
- Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
- fonti
in italiano
- Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
- Santi e
Beati
MLA Citation
- “Blessed John
Finch“. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 May 2020. Web. 12 February
2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-john-finch/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-john-finch/
Ven. John Finch
A martyr, b. about 1548; d. 20 April, 1584. He was a yeoman of Eccleston, Lancashire, and a member of a well-known old Catholic family, but he appears to have been brought up in schism. When he was twenty years old he went to London where he spent nearly a year with some cousins at Inner Temple. While there he was forcibly struck by the contrast between Protestantism and Catholicism in practice and determined to lead a Catholic life. Failing to find advancement in London he returned to Lancashire where he was reconciled to Catholic Church. He then married and settled down, his house becoming a centre of missionary work, he himself harbouring priests and aiding them in every way, besides acting as catechist. His zeal drew on him the hostility of the authorities, and at Christmas, 1581, he was entrapped into bringing a priest, George Ostliffe, to a place where both were apprehended. It was given out that Finch, having betrayed the priest and other Catholics, had taken refuge with the Earl of Derby, but in fact, he was kept in the earl's house as a prisoner, sometimes tortured and sometimes bribed in order to pervert him and induce him to give information. This failing, he was removed to the Fleet prison at Manchester and afterwards to the House of Correction. When he refused to go to the Protestant church he was dragged there by the feet, his head beating on the stones. For many months he lay in a damp dungeon, ill-fed and ill-treated, desiring always that he might be brought to trial and martyrdom. After three years' imprisonment, he was sent to be tried at Lancaster. There he was brought to trial with three priests on 18 April, 1584. He was found guilty and, 20 April, having spent the night in converting some condemned felons, he suffered with Ven. James Bell at Lancaster. The cause of his beatification with those of the other English Martyrs was introduced by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 4 Dec., 1886.
He was beatified in 1929.
Burton, Edwin. "Ven. John Finch." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 19
Apr. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06076b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September
1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop
of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06076b.htm
LANCASTER’S CATHOLIC MARTYRS’
BY CHRISTINE GOODIER MA
During the period 1584-1646 fifteen Catholics were
executed in Lancaster for their faith. The law at this time made it illegal to
convert or be converted to Catholicism, to say or hear Mass or to help or
conceal the presence of a priest.To be a priest ordained abroad was classed as
treason.
Queen Elizabeth I had been declared a heretic and
excommunicated by the Pope in 1570 and from then on English Catholics were seen
as a dangerous ‘fifth column’- people whose loyalties were divided between the
Crown and the See of Rome. In fact, the vast majority of English Catholics,
many of whom lived in Lancashire, remained staunchly loyal to the throne.
Despite the danger, many young men went to Europe to train for ‘The English
Mission’ as it became known. Returning to England these priests would have
spent their time, for the most part, moving clandestinely from house to house,
often forced to hide for days in tiny spaces built for the purpose and known as
Priest Holes while government agents searched for them. These men, and the
lay-people who helped them, fully understood that they could expect little
clemency from the courts if they were captured.The law reserved its harshest
penalties for those convicted of treason. In this case, priests were hanged,
drawn and quartered, while laymen were executed by hanging.
BLESSED JAMES BELL (D 1584)
Bell was born in Warrington and became a priest during
the reign of Queen Mary but conformed under Elizabeth and served as an Anglican
minister for 20 years. He returned to Lancashire in 1579 and was reconciled to
the Faith in 1581. In January 1584, he was arrested and taken to Manchester,
then brought to Lancaster for trial. He was executed on 10th April 1584.
BLESSED JOHN FINCH (D 1584)
John Finch was a yeoman farmer from Eccleston, near
Chorley. He was raised a Protestant but after his conversion he helped to
conceal priests in his home and to act as their guide about the county. He was
betrayed while on such a mission and was arrested by the Earl of Derby. He was
tortured and then spent three years in prison before coming to trial at
Lancaster. He was executed on the same day as Bell.
BLESSED ROBERT NUTTER (1557-1600)
Fr Robert Nutter, who came from Burnley, was sent to
the Tower of London after his arrest in 1584 along with his brother, who was
also a priest. Both were savagely tortured, and Robert had to witness his
brother’s execution before he was himself allowed to leave the country. Despite
this he returned at the end of 1585 and, after being captured once more, spent
the next twelve years in prison at Wisbech. He managed to escape in 1600 but
was re-arrested. He was executed in Lancaster on 26th July 1600.
BLESSED EDWARD THWING (1565-1600)
Thwing came from Heworth, near York and studied at
Rheims, being ordained in 1590. Although in poor health he came to England and
worked in Lancashire for three years before his arrest. He was executed
alongside Robert Nutter – ‘this little severity’ as one Justice of the Peace
described it.
BLESSED THURSTAN HUNT (1555-1601)
Fr Hunt worked in the North undetected for 15 years,
using the name Robert Greenlowe. In September 1600 he was captured after a
failed attempt to free his co-priest Robert Middleton who was being taken to
Lancaster for trial. Both men were sent to London as it seems that Hunt had
somehow got wind of the forthcoming Essex Rebellion. An open letter was found
on his person warning the Queen of the plot. Despite (or perhaps because of)
this he and Middleton were sent back to Lancaster in some haste – ‘their legs
tied under the belly of their horse and their hands behind them’. They were
executed on 3rd April 1601.
BLESSED ROBERT MIDDLETON (1571-1601)
Middleton came from York and was raised a Protestant.
He converted in his teens and went abroad to study for the priesthood. His
sister was present at his execution and offered £100 for his life and for him
to talk to a minister in the hope of re-converting him. He reproached her and
refused all attempts to sway him from his faith.
VENERABLE LAWRENCE BAILEY (D.1604)
Bailey was one of the lay-people who assisted the
priests in their mission. He was captured in September 1604 after helping a
priest to escape arrest. He was hanged on 16 th September 1604.
BLESSED JOHN THULES (1568-1616), BLESSED ROGER WRENNO
(1578-1616)
Fr JohnThules was arrested at the house of Roger
Wrenno, a ‘poor weaver’ from Chorley. They managed to escape from Lancaster
Castle, but after walking all night they found that they had been going in
circles and were still within sight of their prison. Recaptured and condemned,
they were offered their lives if they would recant their faith. Both refused.
The first attempt to hang Wrenno failed when the rope broke. Seeing this as
divine intervention, the Sheriff said to him ‘It is God’s will thou shouldst
not die; take the oath therefore and be a good subject and the King will show
mercy’. Wrenno replied, ‘If you had seen that which I have just now seen, you
would be as much in haste to die as I now am’. He quickly mounted the scaffold
again and was hanged.
A native of Haydock, Edmund Arrowsmith entered the
seminary at Douai when he was 20 and was ordained in 1611. In the summer of
1628, he was betrayed by a Catholic man named Holden who was the son of the
landlord of the Blue Anchor Inn at Brindle. At his trial he had the misfortune
to come before the Puritan judge, Sir Henry Yelverton, who accused him outright
of being a priest and tried to trap him into admitting it. This was important
as there was very little other evidence against him. Eventually Edmund was
found guilty and the judge ordered him held in irons in the worst cell in the
Castle until his execution.
This was a tiny cell known as The Smoothing Iron, which
may well be what we can see today in Hadrian’s Tower. No-one could be found to
carry out the execution until, finally, a deserter, himself under sentence of
death, volunteered in return for his liberty and 40/-. Edmund suffered the full
rigour of the law but one of his hands was rescued from the executioner’s
flames. It can be seen at the church of St Oswald at Ashton-in-Makerfied, where
miracles of healing are said to occur at its touch.
BLESSED RICHARD HURST (D 1628)
Hurst, a farmer, was arrested while out ploughing his
fields. In the struggle, one of his attackers broke his leg and subsequently
died. Hurst was charged with the man’s murder as well as for his Catholic
activities and was hanged on 29th August 1628, the day after Arrowsmith.
SAINT AMBROSE BARLOW (1585-1641)
Fr Barlow worked in Lancashire from 1617 until 1641
and was noted for his piety. He was arrested while saying mass in Leigh on
Easter Day 1641. Tried at the Lancaster Autumn Assize, he was executed on 10th.
September 1641.
BLESSED EDWARD BAMBER (1600-1646)
Born at Carleton in the parish of Poulton-le-Fylde,
Bamber was ordained in Spain in 1626. At his execution he threw a handful of
money into the crowd and reconciled a man condemned for the murder of his
brother, giving him absolution on the gallows.
BLESSED JOHN WOODCOCK (1603-1646)
Born in Leyland John was brought up a Protestant but
later became a Franciscan. He was arrested after saying mass at Bamber Bridge.
Eventually brought to court in August 1646, he admitted to being a priest.
Nothing further was needed to condemn him and he received the inevitable death
sentence. The rope broke at the first attempt, but he was hanged again and then
butchered alive.
BLESSED THOMAS WHITTAKER (1611-1646)
Fr Whittaker ministered in the area of St
Michaels-on-Wyre, Goosnargh and Kirkham. He was arrested once but escaped
before his ultimate capture in 1643. Thomas was clearly in mortal terror of
what awaited him and, having watched the executions of Bamber and Woodcock, he
was offered the chance to save himself by denying his faith. It must have taken
enormous courage to say what he did: ‘Use your pleasure with me. A reprieve of
even a pardon upon your condition I utterly refuse’
He was the last priest to be executed in Lancaster.
The sacrifice of these men was finally recognised by
Rome:
Bell, Finch and Hurst were beatified by Pope Pius XI
in 1929.
Arrowsmith and Barlow were cannonised by Pope Paul VI
in 1970.
Nutter, Thwing, Hunt, Middleton, Thules, Wrenno,
Bamber, Woodcock and Whittaker were all beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987
Lawrence Bailey’s case is still unproven and he remains ‘The Venerable’.
SOURCE : http://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/further-articles/lancasters-catholic-martyrs/
Beati Giacomo Bell e Giovanni Finch Martiri
>>> Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
† Lancaster, Inghilterra, 20 aprile 1584
Il B. Giovanni Finch, sposato e ricco proprietario di Eccleston (Lancashire), fu martirizzato a Lancaster, dopo molti anni di duro carcere, perché conduceva i sacerdoti da una famiglia all'altra, da un villaggio all'altro, prendeva parte alla celebrazione della Messa e negava alla regina la supremazia spirituale. Alla sua impiccagione fu presente il B. Giacomo Bell, prete apostata per vent'anni. Dopo una grave malattia si era pentito del suo peccato ed era diventato il padre dei poveri. Tradito da una spia, fu impiccato il giorno dopo il signor Finch. Alla sua sentenza di morte avrebbe voluto che fosse aggiunto l'ordine del taglio delle labbra e delle dita con cui aveva giurato e sottoscritto gli articoli eretici. Furono beatificati nel 1929.
Martirologio Romano: A Lancaster in Inghilterra, beati Giacomo Bell e Giovanni Finch, martiri: il primo, sacerdote, dopo venti anni trascorsi in altra confessione, su esortazione di una pia donna si riconciliò con la Chiesa cattolica; l’altro, padre di famiglia, contadino e catechista, per la sua fede subì per molti anni il carcere, la fame e altre sofferenze; entrambi pervennero insieme all’eterno gaudio sotto la regina Elisabetta I.
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/50180
Voir aussi : http://billingtonlancaster.blogspot.ca/2009/04/1584-blessed-james-bell-and-blessed.html
