The Cathedral Church of
Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham,
Bienheureux Thomas Plumtree
Prêtre et martyr en Angleterre (✝ 1570)
Né dans le Lincolnshire, il étudia au collège Corpus
Christi d'Oxford et fut recteur de Stubton. Catholique convaincu, il prit part
à la révolte menée par les catholiques du Nord contre la reine Élisabeth Ière
(1558-1603). Capturé après l'échec de cette rébellion, il lui fut offert la
liberté s'il abjurait sa foi, il refusa et fut pendu au château de Durham.
À Durham en Angleterre, l'an 1570, le bienheureux Thomas Plumtree, prêtre et
martyr, qui, sous le règne d'Élisabeth Ière, fut condamné à mort pour avoir
célébré la messe en public. Amené devant la potence, il déclara avec force
préférer la corde à la vie sauve en reniant la foi catholique.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11326/Bienheureux-Thomas-Plumtree.html
Bienheureux Thomas Plumtree, martyr
Né dans le Lincolnshire, il étudia au collège Corpus
Christi d'Oxford et fut recteur de Stubton. Sous le règne d’Élisabeth Ière, Il
fut condamné à mort pour avoir célébré la messe en public. Amené devant la
potence, il déclara avec force préférer la corde à la vie sauve en reniant la
foi catholique. Il fut donc pendu au château de Durham en 1570.
SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/paroisse-saint-aygulf/saint-du-jour/icalrepeat.detail/2018/01/04/12050/-/bienheureux-thomas-plumtree-martyr?filter_reset=1
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Born in the diocese of
Lincoln, a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1546, he was made
Rector of Stubton in his native county. He resigned his benefice on the change
of religion under Elizabeth, and became a school master at Lincoln, but was
obliged to resign the post on account of his faith. But it is as chief chaplain
and priest of the army of the Rising that he won the martyr’s palm. His voice
seems to have been like the Baptist’s and to have stirred high and low alike.
His call to abandon heresy and to rally to the standard of the faith ran
through the northern counties, and hundreds came in response to his summons. He
appears to have been celebrant of the Mass in Durham Cathedral immediately
preceding Father Holmes’ sermon and the public Absolution which followed. On
his capture after the failure of the Rising, he was singled out as a notable
example of the priests who had officiated. On the gibbet in the market-place at
Durham he was offered his life if he would embrace heresy, but he refused, and
dying to this world received eternal life from Christ. He suffered 4 January
1572, and was buried in the market-place.
MLA Citation
- Father Henry Sebastian
Bowden. “Blessed Thomas Plumtree, Preacher, 1572”. Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
21 April 2019. Web. 4 January 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-blessed-thomas-plumtree-preacher-1572/>
Article
The Blessed Thomas
Plumtree was a man of learning and of holy life who had been ordained priest in
the reign of Queen Mary. On occasion of the famous Rising in the North, under
the conduct of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, Plumtree attached himself
to the insurgents, became their chaplain and preacher, and publicly celebrated
Mass for them in the church of Durham College. It was on this charge that he
was tried and condemned to death; but as his life was offered him on the
scaffold if he would renounce the Catholic Faith and adopt the new religion, it
was in truth for this holy cause that he died. When urged to comply, he firmly
refused any such compromise, and declared that he had no wish to live in this
world, if he were to die to God. He was executed in the Market Place at Durham,
and buried in the Church of Saint Nicholas. There is some uncertainty as to the
Christian name of this Martyr, as he is sometimes called Thomas and sometimes
William; nor is it clear whether or not he is the same with Plumtree, a
schoolmaster of Lincolnshire, who suffered for the Faith. With the sanction of
Pope Gregory XII, the Blessed Thomas was represented on the walls of the
ancient church of the English College in Rome; and with the approbation of Leo
XIII, the Sacred Congregation of Rites, by a Decree published 29th of December,
1886, declared him entitled to the honours of the Blessed.
MLA Citation
- Father Richard Stanton.
“Blessed Thomas Plumtree, Martyr, c.1569-1570”. Menology
of England and Wales, 1887.CatholicSaints.Info. 15 April 2015.
Web. 4 January 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/menology-of-england-and-wales-blessed-thomas-plumtree-martyr-c-1569-1570/>
Wednesday, January
4, 2012
Blessed Thomas
Plumtree, 1570 Martyr
Blessed Thomas Plumtree, formerly of Corpus Christi
College at Oxford, served as chaplain to the Northern Rising of Thomas Percy,
Earl of Northumberland and Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. He officiated
at the Mass in Durham Cathedral on December 4, at which clergy and people who
had conformed to the new religion were reconciled to the old faith. With the
establishment of the Church of England at the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign,
Father Plumtree had been forced first from his rectorship at Stubton and then
from his role as schoolmaster by the requirements of the Oath of Supremacy,
etc. He was charged with having said Mass and offered freedom if he renounced
his Catholicism, on the scaffold in the Durham Castlemarketplace!--which he refused. Pope Leo
XIII declared him a martyr and beatified him in 1886. The Catholic Church of
St. Cuthbert in Durhammentions him in the history of their church.
On this day: Bl. Thomas Plumtree, Jan 4, 2011
by Gerelyn
Hollingsworth
On this day in 1570, Thomas Plumtree was hanged in the
market place at Durham for his role as Preacher to the Rebels of 1569.
Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles
Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, led the Rising of the North against Queen
Elizabeth with the intention of deposing her and replacing her with Mary, Queen
of Scots. Thomas Plumtree joined them as their chaplain. He officiated at the
Mass in Durham Cathedral on December 4, at which clergy and people who had
conformed to the new religion were reconciled to the old faith.
--See Lives
of the English Martyrs Declared Blessed by Pope Leo XIII. in 1886 and
1895, Written by Fathers of the Oratory, of the Secular Clergy and of
the Society of Jesus, Completed and Edited by Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B., Longmans,
Green and Co., 1914.
The rebellion inspired ballads, including one in which
Thomas Plumtree is mentioned:
Among manye newes reported of late,
As touching the Rebelles their wicked estate,
Yet Syr Thomas Plomtrie, their preacher they saie,
Hath made the north countrie to crie well a daye,
Well a daye, well a daye, well a daye, woe is mee,
Syr Thomas Plomtrie is hanged on a tree.
--Quoted in Memorials
of the Rebellion of 1569, by Sir Cuthbert Sharp, London, 1810.
This
youtube gives some background information about The Northern Rebellion
of 1569 and the Queen's savage punishment of 700 participants.
Thomas Plumtree, Priest and Martyr, was beatified by
Pope Leo XIII in 1886.
--A
Menology of England and Wales; or, Brief Memorials of the Ancient British and
English Saints, Arranged According to the Calendar: Together with the Martyrs
of the 16th and 17th Centuries, by Richard Stanton, Priest of The
Oratory, London, Burns & Oates, 1887.
For an unfavorable review of Stanton's book and a
skeptical opinion of the beatification of the "alleged martyr",
see The
Athenaeum of March 17, 1888, p. 336-7.
SOURCE : https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/day-bl-thomas-plumtree
Beato Tommaso Plumtree Sacerdote
e martire
† Durham, Inghilterra, 4 gennaio 1570
Martirologio
Romano: A Durham in Inghilterra,
beato Tommaso Plumtree, sacerdote e martire: condannato a morte, sotto la
regina Elisabetta I, per la sua fedeltà alla Chiesa cattolica, subì con
coraggio il supplizio dell’impiccagione che, dinanzi al patibolo, affermò di
preferire alla vita.
Questo beato martire
inglese è noto in particolare per la sua coraggiosa testimonianza durante la
“Rivolta del Nord” del 1569, che puntava a detronizzare la regina protestante
Elisabetta I d’Inghilterra per sostituirla con la cattolica Maria Stuarda di
Scozia, sua cugina.
Assai poco
sappiamo dell’infanzia di Thomas Plumtree. Nel 1543 fu ammesso come studente
alla Christ Church di Oxford e, dopo la laurea, nel 1546 fu nominato rettore di
Stubton, nel nativo Lincolnshire. All’ascesa al trono di Elisabetta rinunciò
alla sua prebenda per evitare di dover prestare il giuramento previsto dal
nuovo Atto di Supremazia ed Uniformità, volto ad eliminare le contese religiose
che dividevano il paese. In realtà tale concordato, lungi dal ricondurre gli
inglesi all’unità, esasperò invece gli animi di entrambe le fazioni. Thomas,
divenuto maestro a Lincoln, scoprì che ai cattolici era proibito
l’insegnamento.
Si trasferì poi al nord e divenne cappellano
di Thomas Percy, conte di Northumbria. Questi e Charles Neville, conte di
Westmoreland, furono i principali organizzatori della Rivolta del Nord del
1569. All’inizio la spinta rivoluzionaria da loro intrapresa era forse non
molto dettata da motivi religiosi, ma la loro azione fu presto abbracciata da
parecchi cattolici desiderosi di liberarsi al più presto dalla nuova fede loro
imposta. Nel
corso della Rivolta furono distrutti i libri di preghiera protestanti in una
settantina di chiese dello Yorkshire ed in otto a Durham.
In un’antica ballata Plumtree viene definito “il Pastore dei Ribelli”, in
riconoscimento all’impegno profuso nel ricondurre il popolo alla fede dei
padri. Durante la rivolta in alcune chiese nel
Yorkshire ed a Durham fu ripristinata la Messa cattolica. Nella grande
cattedrale la folla conveniva alle sacre funzioni e Plumtree stesso celebrò la
Messa del 4 dicembre, nella cui occasione il sacerdote William Holmes
riconciliò il clero ed il popolo con la Chiesa cattolica.
La fine di questa Rivolta non mancò dall’essere seguita da sanguinose vendette:
la regina ordinò l’esecuzione di centinaia di persone che avevano appoggiato la
ribellione, ma purtroppo non si conosce con esattezza il numero dei condannati.
Tra di loro comunque vi fu Thomas Plumtree, giustiziato nella piazza di Durham
il 4 gennaio 1570. Dieci giorni dopo avvenne la sua sepoltura, come annotato
nei registri della chiesa di San Nicola, intervallo forse dovuto alla
prolungata esposizione del suo cadavere quale monito per il popolo.
Thomas Plumtree fu beatificato dal Leone XIII il 9 dicembre 1886 ed il suo
amico Thomas Percy, anch’egli morto martire, fu beatificato dal medesimo
pontefice dieci anni dopo.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
