The Cause for Katherine of Aragon, Updated

Gregory Nassif St. John alerted me to this article in The American Spectator, for which Mr. St. John was interviewed by Thomas J. Craughwell: "An American Saint Maker"!

Katharine of Aragon (1485-1536), the first wife of the much-married English king, Henry VIII, has a new champion. Gregory Nassif St. John, a retired New York stage actor now living in Georgia, has begun the process that he hopes and prays will lead to the Catholic Church declaring that Katharine (Nassif St. John uses the traditional English spelling) is a saint. . . .

"Her story touched me very deeply," Nassif St. John said in a recent interview. "I knew she was being treated unfairly and cruelly. Her story stuck with me my whole life."

It's one thing to feel sympathy for Katharine, but how does one go about making her a saint? Encouraged by his parish priest, Nassif St. John wrote to Michael Evans, the Catholic bishop of East Anglia, (the diocese where Katharine died and where she lies buried) and Vincent Nichols, Catholic archbishop of Westminster, seeking their advice. Archbishop Nichols and Bishop Evans both expressed their support for the cause, but emphasized that there must be clear evidence of devotion to Katharine. In other words, there must be proof that people venerate Katharine's memory and consider her saintly.

That evidence has been supplied by Charles Taylor, Dean of the Anglican diocese of Peterborough, England. Every year, about the time of the anniversary of Katharine's death, the clergy of Peterborough Cathedral (site of Katharine's grave) host a three-day commemoration of this holy but cast-off queen. There is an ecumenical memorial service in the cathedral, a candlelight procession to Katharine's grave, and a Catholic Mass offered at the High Altar. . . .

Congratulations to Mr. St. John on reaching such a great audience!

May 30, 1847

Mr. John Henry Newman, former Church of England clergyman, was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on Trinity Sunday, May 30, 1847 in Rome. (Bishop James D. Conley, Auxiliary Bishop of Denver, celebrates his third anniversary of ordination to the episcopate this year on the same date!--he was formerly pastor of my parish.) Newman had studied for ordination at the Propaganda Fidei. Part of his preparation had been the discernment of a particular path for his priestly vocation and he had chosen the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. This book by Placid Murray is very helpful to understanding why Blessed John Henry Newman decided to bring the Oratory Movement to England; for one thing he sought a community where his erstwhile Tractarians could be united.

When Pope Benedict XVI beatified Newman during his visit to England last September, he highlighted the Blessed's role as a priest in Birmingham:

While it is John Henry Newman’s intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous sermons: "Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who come from the midst of you" ("Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel", Discourses to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to rejoice in the Church’s solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven:

Praise to the Holiest in the height
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways!
(The Dream of Gerontius).

Almanac for May 29

Technically, but perhaps not elegantly, speaking, lots of things happened on May 29:

--G.K. Chesterton was born in 1874!

--Charles II was born in 1630

--Charles II was restored to the thrones of England and Scotland (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) in 1660

--John Penry, a Welsh Puritan minister and the Martin Marprelate author was executed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, with her Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Whitgift, signing the death warrant. He was drawn and hung, but not quartered. There is a strange conspiracy theory about his connections to Christopher Marlowe.

Another event was the murder in 1546 of Cardinal Archbishop of St. Andrews, David Beaton, the last Catholic Cardinal named before the Scottish Reformation erupted. He was utterly opposed to the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry VIII's heir Edward, and steadfastly in favor of the "Auld Alliance" between Scotland and France. Beaton served King James V of Scotland as ambassador and attempted to serve the infant Queen as regent. Many at Court blamed him for James V's refusal to meet with Henry VIII--Henry was urging James to follow his lead: take over the Church in Scotland, suppress the monasteries and take their wealth as his own, and break away from the Catholic Church and the Pope's authority. After the Scots were defeated at the battle of Solway Moss, James V died. Beaton regained power in 1543 and cancelled the marriage agreement between Mary and Edward--and of course that led to the "Rough Wooing", English incursions into Scotland.

Beaton had a role in the burning of George Wishart, a Protestant, as a heretic on March 1, 1546 and that led to his murder by Norman Leslie, master of Rothes, and William Kirkcaldy of Grange in the castle of St. Andrews, his home. John Hamilton, who succeeded him as Archbishop, was executed on April 6, 1571, found guilty of conspiracy in the death of Lord Darnley and James Stewart, the Earl of Moray.

Blessed Margaret Pole, Last Plantagenet Princess

On May 28, 1541 Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury was executed on the orders of Henry VIII. She had been held in the Tower of London and was condemned to death without trial. There are reports that her execution was brutal as the axe man did not accomplish his mission with one blow, but hit her head and shoulders before decapitation.

Strange as it might seem to say, she and Anne Boleyn are kind of mirror images on either side of the cataclysms of Henry VIII’s reign, and have much in common:

Henry VIII honored them both, making them the richest women in England in their own right
o Margaret was Countess of Salisbury with lands and castles
o Anne was Marquess of Pembroke with lands and castles

Both were from royal families of England
o Margaret from the Plantagenet family (her father was the Duke of Clarence)—more royal blood than any Tudor!
o Anne from the Howard family

Obviously, both executed—both in connection with the Dissolution of the Monasteries
o Margaret’s execution connected to the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion against the Dissolution of the Monasteries (emblems of the Five Wounds of Christ, used by the rebels on their banners, found in Margaret’s possession)
o Anne’s execution/plot against her by Cromwell, according to Alison Weir, was connected to Anne’s conflict with him over the process of the Dissolution

Their executions were part of the downfall of their families, orchestrated by Henry VIII
o Anne’s brother was executed, condemned for incest and plotting against the king; the Boleyn party at court destroyed; lands and wealth forfeit to the Crown
o Margaret’s son Lord Montague was executed; other sons in exile; Reginald attainted traitor; lands and wealth forfeit to the Crown

There are obvious differences between them too:

Margaret championed Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Mary, serving as the Princess’s governess and godmother

Anne harassed and threatened Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Mary, forcing the former Princess to serve her daughter Elizabeth

In matters of the religious settlement, things might not be as clear as we might think:

In her book The Lady in the Tower, Alison Weir points out that whatever her reputation for favoring reform of the Church, Anne Boleyn demonstrated conventionally Catholic views of the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, receiving both before her execution and presenting her reception of them as evidence of her innocence to her jailer. (In effect, saying: ‘How could I receive Holy Communion before my death if I have the mortal sin of incest on my soul—which I have not confessed—condemning myself to Hell?’)

Margaret Pole might have been opposed to Henry’s actions against Catherine of Aragon and Mary, and the ascendancy of Anne Boleyn, but she and her family living in England were publicly aghast at her son Reginald Pole’s written remonstrance to Henry VIII which chastised him for his actions and his Supremacy as Head and Governor of the Church in England. Nevertheless Henry knew what side the Pole family was on and told the French ambassador he would destroy them.

These parallels also reflect how quickly things could change in Henry’s Court—as St. Thomas More called it, the Lion’s Den—in 1533, Margaret was in disgrace while Anne was at her height of power; in 1536, Anne was in disgrace and Margaret able to return to Court. Almost immediately, however, Henry VIII received 'De Unitate Ecclesiastica’ from her son Reginald Pole, which placed the entire family in danger. Margaret was first held under house arrest and then placed in the Tower of London in 1539. (Her son Henry, Lord Montague was executed on December 7, 1538.) Although the bill of attainder against her was passed in Parliament on May 12, 1539, it was not until another rebellion in the north against the Dissolution of the Monasteries occurred in April, 1541, that she was executed.

Reginald rejoiced that his mother was a martyr for the faith; she was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. Hazel Pierce’s biography Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury 1473-1541: Loyalty, Lineage and Leadership, is a model of scholarship and restraint; I have reviewed it on Amazon.com. I refer to Margaret Pole’s execution in Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation in the context of Mary I’s accession to the throne. Margaret had been like a second mother to Mary; she had offered to stay with Mary at her own expense when Catherine of Aragon was sent away from Court. The horror of her death was certainly another sorrow for Mary before she was finally restored in stature and legitimacy by her first Parliament as Queen of England.

Sir Robert Shirley and His Chapel

Father George Rutler recently celebrated a Solemn High Mass for Artists at the Church of Our Saviour in New York City. He sent out this weekly column afterwards:

FROM THE PASTOR

May 22, 2011

by Fr. George W. Rutler

In many ways New York is the artistic capital of the world, and we are in the middle of it. We certainly would be remiss if we did not foster this treasure, in the great Catholic tradition. Many visitors are surprised that much of the devotional art and ecclesiastical decoration in our church is the work of our own parishioners. If we can become an “atelier of the Lord,” it will be very much part of our Christian witness and stewardship.

Our Lord ascended to Heaven so that the Holy Spirit might come at Pentecost and fill the Church with His truth. The greatest art expresses that truth and is far superior to vain “self-expression.” John Keats said “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” but T.S. Eliot rightly thought that the expression was meaningless sentimentality. The craftsman ignorant of the Creator becomes a vain aesthete expressing nothing more than the ego. While truth is beautiful, beauty is not truth itself but expresses that truth. In the classical tradition, beauty consists in proportion, integrity and clarity: it is harmonious, suited to its purpose, and intelligible. This is sublimely seen in Christ Himself, Who incarnated this beauty as the Way (guiding to a harmony of virtue) and the Truth (revealing God) and the Life (enlightening with creative love). St. Macarius, an Egyptian monk of the fourth century said, “The soul which has been fully illumined by the unspeakable beauty of the glory shining on the countenance of Christ overflows with the Holy Spirit . . . it is all eye, all light, all countenance.”

Art is not merely an option for the Christian. Thus, the wisdom of Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice: “The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils . . .” The most sublime art is the Eucharist, in which we “take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims . . .” (Vatican II, SC 8).

Last Sunday, our church was overflowing for a Solemn High Mass to inaugurate a Society of Catholic Artists, founded at the initiative of Catholic painters, musicians, actors and writers. Whatever will be realized from this, it certainly is a hopeful sign in an age whose potential has often been thwarted by a misuse of art to diminish the human spirit. May it someday be said of these good people what was inscribed on the wall of a church in Leicester, England, during the iconoclastic period of the Protectorate: “In the year 1654 when all things were, throughout this nation, either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley, Baronet, founded and built this church. He it is whose singular praise it is to have done the best things in the worst times, and to have hoped them in the most calamitous.”

Father Rutler is speaking here of the Ferrers Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Staunton Herald which is part of the National Trust. As artists often suffer for their art, Sir Robert Sidney certainly suffered for his patronage:

In the year 1653 no doubt owing to the overthrow of the Prayer Book services in the parish church, Sir Robert Shirley built a large and spacious church close to his own mansion at Staunton Harold. When it was completed the Lord Protector demanded a large sum of money from him on the ground that if he could afford to build a church he could afford to provide him with a regiment of soldiers. On his refusal he was imprisoned in the Tower and died suddenly soon afterwards.

Blessed Margaret Pole on EWTN

EWTN posts this biography from Father Alban Butler:

The life of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was tragic from her cradle to her grave.l Nay, even before she was born, death in its most violent or dreaded forms had been long busy with her family—hastening to extinction a line that had swayed the destinies of England for nearly four centuries and a half. Her grandfather was that splendid Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the mighty King-maker, who as the "last of the Barons," so fittingly died on the stricken field of garnet, and whose soldier's passing gave to Shakespeare a theme worthy of some of his most affecting lines. Her father was the George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, whose death in the Tower in January, 1478, has been attributed to so many causes. The murdered "Princes in the Tower," Edward V and his little brother, the Duke of York, were her first cousins, while her only brother, Edward, Earl of Warwick, was judicially murdered by Henry VII to ensure his own possession of the Crown. The list of tragedies in the family of the Blessed Margaret is still far from complete, but sufficient instances have been given to justify the description we have given of her whole career. . . .

The Countess of Salisbury was taken to East Smithfield early in the morning of 28th May, 1541, and there beheaded on a low block or log in the presence of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and a few other spectators. The regular headsman was away from London at the time, and his deputy, an unskilful lout, hacked at the blessed Martyr in such a way as to give some foundation to the story afterwards made current by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, that she had refused to lay her head on the block and was, therefore, struck repeatedly by the executioner till she fell dead. Before her death, she prayed for the King, Queen (Catherine Howard), Prince of Wales (later Edward VI), and the Princess Mary Her last words were: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

The body of the Blessed Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was interred in the Tower, in that Chapel dedicated to St. Peter's Chains, whose illustrious dead and historic associations are enshrined in Macaulay's memorable lines. She was declared Blessed with many of the rest of the English Martyrs by Leo XIII, 29th December, 1886. Others than her co-religionists, no doubt, like to reflect that a life, so marked by piety, and so full of griefs ever heroically borne, has after the lapse of nearly four centuries been thus honoured, and that the last direct descendant of the Plantaganet line has her place in the Hagiography of the Church so long associated with their sway.

Her feast day is tomorrow, but EWTN will broadcast a documentary on her life today, Friday, May 27, from Mary's Dowry Productions:

Blessed Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Friday, May 27, 6:30-7 p.m. EDT (EWTN) Filmed on location at the site of her imprisonment — the ruins of Britain’s Cowdray House — this documentary on the life of Blessed Margaret Pole explores its subject’s undaunted bravery in the face of persecution brought on by King Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church.

St. Philip Neri and Blessed John Henry Newman

May 26th is the feast of St. Philip Neri, Apostle of Rome, founder of the Oratorians.

According to this EWTN biography,

Philip Neri was born in Florence in the year 1515, one of four children of the notary Francesco Neri. The mother died while the children were very young, her place being filled by a capable stepmother. From infancy Philip had a docile, merry disposition. They called him "Pippo buono," "good little Phil," for he was a dutiful, attractive, cheerful lad, popular with all who knew him. . . .

One of the most famous members of the Oratorian order, Cardinal Newman, wrote[4] of Neri nearly three hundred years after his death, "he contemplated as the idea of his mission, not the propagation of the faith, nor the exposition of doctrine, nor the catechetical schools; whatever was exact and systematic pleased him not; he put from him monastic rule and authoritative speech, as David refused the armor of his king.... He came to the Eternal City and he sat himself down there, and his home and his family gradually grew up around him, by the spontaneous accession of materials from without. He did not so much seek his own as draw them to him. He sat in his small room, and they in their gay, worldly dresses, the rich and the wellborn, as well as the simple and the illiterate, crowded into it. In the mid-heats of summer, in the frosts of winter still was he in that low and narrow cell at San Girolamo, reading the hearts of those who came to him, and curing their souls' maladies by the very touch of his hand.... And they who came remained gazing and listening till, at length, first one and then another threw off their bravery, and took his poor cassock and girdle instead; or, if they kept it, it was to put haircloth under it, or to take on them a rule of life, while to the world they looked as before."

Blessed John Henry Newman was the founder of the Oratory Movement in England, as he chose the Oratorian vocation and lifestyle possibly because it resembled the Oxford collegiate structure in community and friendship--he always venerated his patron as his model and guide.

The Pittsburgh Oratory provides links to two sermons Newman preached in 1850 on St. Philip Neri's mission, on January 15 and January 18.

Henriette Anne d'Angleterre and the Treaty of Dover

On May 26, 1670, Charles II and Louis XIV of England and France respectively, signed the Treaty of Dover, in which Charles promised to become a Catholic and Louis promised to pay him enough money to join in an alliance against Holland without having to summon Parliament for funds. Charles II's sister Henrietta, "Minette" or Madame as she was called at the French Court, had some influence upon this meeting at Dover.

The young princess had come to France with her mother Queen Henrietta Maria during the English Civil War. Raised at Court, she became a Roman Catholic and was married to Louis Dieudonne's brother Philippe. As Louis XIV's brother, Philippe was called "Monsieur" and Henrietta "Madame". She was a favorite of the King at Court and lauded for her beauty. Two of Louis's mistresses, Louise de la Valliere (who repented and became a Carmelite) and Francoise-Athenais, Madame de Montespan came from Henrietta's household.

Madame's marriage to Monsieur was not very happy, as he had male lovers and they both had affairs with the same man. She encouraged and attended the meeting of the two kings at Dover, returning to her homeland for the last time. After returning to France she went to Chateau St. Cloud, where she died on June 30, 1670. There was great suspicion of poison. She was buried in St. Denis.

After the death of Henry Benedict Cardinal Stuart, the Jacobite claim continued through Minette's daughter, Anne Marie d'Orleans, who married Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. Minette's daughter Marie Louise d'Orleans married the unfortunate Carlos II of Spain; she died at age 26 in circumstances much like her mother's. Monsieur married again--Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess of the Palatine, known as Liselotte. (Antonia Fraser's Love and Louis XIV clarifies all the relationships at the Sun King's Court.)

Future Cardinal Protector of England and Pope Born

Giulio di Giuliano de Medici was born on May 26, 1478. He would serve as the Cardinal Protector of England from 1514 to 1523, when he succeeded Adrian VI as Pontiff, reigning as Pope Clement VII. In the former office he was succeeded by Lorenzo Campeggio, the last Cardinal Protector of England and in the latter office by Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese.

As Pope Clement VII, of course, he ruled against Henry VIII in the latter's attempt to have his marriage with Katherine of Aragon declared null so he could marry Anne Boleyn. The position of Cardinal Protector of England was interesting preparation for this conflict, since it had been his role to defend the English view of ecclesiastical matters to the curia in Rome.

There were six cardinal protectors of England from the reign of Henry VII to Henry VII, ending of course with the break away from Rome in 1534. The first cardinal protector, Piccolomini, was also elected pope, reigning (briefly) as Pius III in 1503.

The Venerable Bede

May 25 is the feast of St. Bede the Venerable--being called the Venerable Bede does not indicate that he has not been canonized--the author of the Ecclesiatical History of the English Peoples, the Father of English history. He also wrote many scripture commentaries, other chronicles, the lives of abbots and saints, and poetry. Saint Bede is the only English Doctor of the Church (although I hope that after Blessed John Henry Newman is canonized, he will become the second English Doctor of the Church).

His tomb at Durham Cathedral was destroyed in 1541, but his bones were found and a tomb rebuilt for him in the 19th century. We can attempt to experience his world at Bede's World in Jarrow, an interactive museum, which includes access to St. Paul's Anglican church and the ruins of the monastery.

Richard Cromwell, the Second Lord Protector

Oliver Cromwell's son resigned the office of Lord Protector of England on May 25, 1659--he had succeeded his father on September 3, 1658, so he had a short "reign". Richard Cromwell had never received the full support of the New Model Army because he lacked military expertise and he faced the same difficulties both his father and King Charles I had in dealing with Parliament, especially as the government was in desperate need of funds. With Parliament and the Army at conflict, Richard resigned and soon went to France in exile. He was nicknamed "Tumbledown Dick".

He was married to Dorothy Maijor and had inherited her father's Hursley estate in Hampshire. She did not share his exile, however. Richard used pseudonyms including "John Clarke" and wandered throughout Europe until 1680 or 1681. Then he returned to England, lived off profits from his estates and died on July 12, 1712 when he was almost 86 years old. Richard Cromwell was buried in All Saints in Hursley.

Tractarian John Keble was vicar of All Saints from 1835 to 1866.

More on the Blessed Virgin Mary from Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe

Wild air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere,
That each eyelash or hair
Girdles; goes home betwixt
The fleeciest, frailest-flixed
Snowflake; that ’s fairly mixed
With, riddles, and is rife
In every least thing’s life;
This needful, never spent,
And nursing element;
My more than meat and drink,
My meal at every wink;
This air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.

I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name.
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe,
Since God has let dispense
Her prayers his providence:
Nay, more than almoner,
The sweet alms’ self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life does air.
If I have understood,
She holds high motherhood
Towards all our ghostly good
And plays in grace her part
About man’s beating heart,
Laying, like air’s fine flood,
The deathdance in his blood;
Yet no part but what will
Be Christ our Saviour still.
Of her flesh he took flesh:
He does take fresh and fresh,
Though much the mystery how,
Not flesh but spirit now
And makes, O marvellous!
New Nazareths in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve;
New Bethlems, and he born
There, evening, noon, and morn—
Bethlem or Nazareth,
Men here may draw like breath
More Christ and baffle death;
Who, born so, comes to be
New self and nobler me
In each one and each one
More makes, when all is done,
Both God’s and Mary’s Son.
Again, look overhead
How air is azurèd;
O how! nay do but stand
Where you can lift your hand
Skywards: rich, rich it laps
Round the four fingergaps.
Yet such a sapphire-shot,
Charged, steepèd sky will not
Stain light. Yea, mark you this:
It does no prejudice.
The glass-blue days are those
When every colour glows,
Each shape and shadow shows.
Blue be it: this blue heaven
The seven or seven times seven
Hued sunbeam will transmit
Perfect, not alter it.
Or if there does some soft,
On things aloof, aloft,
Bloom breathe, that one breath more
Earth is the fairer for.
Whereas did air not make
This bath of blue and slake
His fire, the sun would shake,
A blear and blinding ball
With blackness bound, and all
The thick stars round him roll
Flashing like flecks of coal,
Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt,
In grimy vasty vault.
So God was god of old:
A mother came to mould
Those limbs like ours which are
What must make our daystar
Much dearer to mankind;
Whose glory bare would blind
Or less would win man’s mind.
Through her we may see him
Made sweeter, not made dim,
And her hand leaves his light
Sifted to suit our sight.
Be thou then, O thou dear
Mother, my atmosphere;
My happier world, wherein
To wend and meet no sin;
Above me, round me lie
Fronting my froward eye
With sweet and scarless sky;
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God’s love, O live air,
Of patience, penance, prayer:
World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.

This site explains the tradition of this comparison and Hopkins' originality of interpretation.

May Is Mary's Month: Gerard Manley Hopkins

The New Theological Movement blog recently asked the question why the month of May is regarded as Mary's month and cited Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem addressing the same issue:

The MAY Magnificat by Gerard Manley Hopkins

MAY is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

Rochester Cathedral and the Baker Saint

The Catholic Herald recounts the story of St. William of Perth, whose cult flourished at Rochester Cathedral:

William of Perth, who died in 1201, was very much a Scottish saint; his cult, however, is closely linked with the history of Rochester cathedral.

All that is known of William comes from John of Tynemouth’s Sanctilogium, written in the mid-14th century.

A baker by trade, William used to set aside every 10th loaf for the poor. Arriving for Mass early one morning, he discovered an abandoned child at the entrance to the church. He adopted the boy, who became known as “Cockermay Doucri” (David the Foundling), and whom he taught the arts of bakery.

Years later, in 1201, in fulfilment of a vow, William undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, taking Cockermay Doucri with him. They stayed three days in Rochester; as they left the city, however, the apprentice lured his master into a remote spot – now near St William’s Hospital, on the road to Maidstone – and slit his throat, presumably for his few possessions. . . .

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was born on May 21, 1688. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917, his parents were Catholic and their son was raised Catholic, which in that age meant his choice of career and his opportunities for education were limited:

The poet's father was a linen merchant in Lombard Street, London, who before the end of the seventeenth century retired on a moderate fortune first to Kensington, then to Binfield, and finally to Chiswick, where he died in 1717. Soon after this event Pope with his mother removed to the villa at Twickenham, which became his permanent abode, and which, with its five acres, its gardens, and its grotto, will be forever associated with his memory. As a child he was very delicate, and he retained a constitutional weakness as well as a deformity of body all through his life, while in stature he was very diminutive. His early education was spasmodic and irregular, but before he was twelve he had picked up a smattering of Latin and Greek from various tutors and at sundry schools, and subsequently he acquired a similar knowledge of French and Italian. From his thirteenth year onward he was self-instructed and he was an extensive reader. Barred from a political and to a great extent from a professional career by the penal laws then in force against Catholics, he did not feel the restraint very acutely, for his earliest aspiration was to be a poet, and at an exceptionally youthful period he was engaged in writing verses.

This site includes link to his poetry on-line and offers these notes on his work:

According to Reuben Brower, “Pope became after Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton the most European of English poets” (The Poetry of Allusion) because his learning and facility with Latin and Greek allowed him to follow and surpass Dryden’s example as a poet, critic, and translator.

Like Dryden, much of Pope’s poetry, and all of his major poems, are inextricably linked to his mastery of the heroic couplet. Aubrey Williams goes so far as to praise Pope’s early Pastorals for introducing “a couplet style more refined and musical than any before in English versification” (DLB 95). In Pope’s hands a form that has since gone progressively moribund, but which was ubiquitous in his day, could move seamlessly from pastoral to satire to epic or moral epistle and be consistently effective.

His Essay on Criticism (1711) established Pope as a significant poetic voice. It also prompted the first of many printed, personal attacks. John Dennis, a prominent critic whom Pope ridiculed in the Essay, aimed his venomous response at Pope’s ailing body, his character, and his religious faith. Joseph Addison, on the other hand, praised Pope for both insight and execution, and Samuel Johnson later hailed the poem for exhibiting “every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactick composition” (Life of Pope). Windsor-Forest, The Rape of the Lock, and The Temple of Fame followed and confirmed Pope’s place among celebrated poets, a place marked again by the publication of The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope. Pope was only 29.

If Pope’s translations of Homer have received less attention than his other works over the years, it is only because translations rarely receive their due. He spent nearly a decade translating Homer’s Greek into English heroic couplets and may have damaged his fragile health in the process. The success of the result entrenched Pope as his generation’s foremost man of letters. More importantly, Pope achieved financial security and independence through subscription sales of his translations, an accomplishment that allowed him to “retire” to a villa at Twickenham.

Regarding the translation of Homer, the classical scholar Richard Bentley told him, "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer."

Although born and raised a Catholic, it seems that Pope rather fell away from the Church. A priest did come to him on his deathbed--he died May 30, 1744.

What a Headline!

From the Hermeneutic of Continuity blog: "Oxford, Jansenism, Newman, and Blessed Lucy of Narnia"!

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol

George Digby the 2nd Earl of Bristol, sometime Catholic, advisor to Charles I and of Charles II, died on May 20, 1677. The Wikipedia article cited here includes a summary of his character:

Bristol was one of the most striking and conspicuous figures of his time, a man of brilliant abilities, a great orator, one who distinguished himself without effort in any sphere of activity he chose to enter, but whose natural gifts were marred by a restless ambition and instability of character fatal to real greatness.

Clarendon describes him as "the only man I ever knew of such incomparable parts that was none the wiser for any experience or misfortune that befell him," and records his extraordinary facility in making friends and making enemies. Horace Walpole characterized him in a series of his smartest antitheses as "a singular person whose life was one contradiction." "He wrote against popery and embraced it; he was a zealous opposer of the court and a sacrifice for it; was conscientiously converted in the midst of his prosecution of Lord Strafford and was most unconscientiously a persecutor of Lord Clarendon. With great parts, he always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery, he was always an unsuccessful commander. He spoke for the Test Act, though a Roman Catholic; and addicted himself to astrology on the birthday of true philosophy."

May 19 in Other Years: 804 and 988

With all due respect to Anne Boleyn, two other deaths on May 19 should be remembered.

The great scholar Alcuin of York died on May 19 in 804 and St. Dunstan of Canterbury on May 19 in 988.

This BBC History article offers detail about Alcuin's life and influence, particularly at the Court of Charlemagne:

King Charles the Great, known often as Charlemagne (768-814), recognised in Alcuin a scholar who could help him to achieve a renaissance of learning and reform of the Church. At the king's invitation, Alcuin joined the royal court in 781, and became one of Charlemagne's chief advisers on religious and educational matters.

Alcuin was made head of the palace school at Aachen, which was attended by members of the royal court and the sons of noble families, and he established a great library there. He revised the church liturgy and the Bible and, along with another great scholar, Theodulf of Orleans, he was responsible for an intellectual movement within the Carolingian empire in which many schools of learning were attached to monasteries and cathedrals, and Latin was restored to a position as a literary language.

St. Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 978. His shrine and relics were destroyed during the English Reformation, after having been discovered by William Warham, Cranmer's predecessor, in 1508. Before the cult of St. Thomas a Becket took hold, St. Dunstan was one of the most popular saints in England. During his clerical career, he was Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of both London and Worcester. He is honored in the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and the Church of England on his feast day.

St. Dunstan's in Canterbury is famous as the resting place of St. Thomas More's head.

The Execution of Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn was executed on May 19, 1536. The picture is from the tv series, The Tudors, which had to stage many executions during its four seasons--Natalie Dormer portrayed Henry VIII's second wife.

As I've previously stated, Gareth Russell developed a great day by day narrative of Anne Boleyn's arrest, imprisonment, trial, and execution last year on his blog and has been updating and reposting them this year, so check at Confessions of Ci-Devant for his update today.

Last year, I posted some notes on Anne Boleyn's role in the English Reformation, found here.

Getting All Fired Up!

Blessed John Forest, an Observant Franciscan of the friary at Greenwich, was executed on May 22, 1538--found guilty of the brand new heresy of denying the ecclesiatical supremacy of Henry VIII in England. In anticipation of his date of martyrdom, I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show this Friday, May 20 to discuss his death and the fate of the Franciscans in England under Henry VIII. Please listen live at 7:45 a.m. Eastern time, 6:45 a.m. Central. Then catch my post on Sunday, May 22. My interview with Brian Patrick on May 4, Feast of the Reformation Martyrs, is archived here.

Sir Thomas Wyatt Survives

As Gareth Russell noted in yesterday's post on the executions of the men accused of adultery (and in the case of her brother, incest) with Anne Boleyn and treason against Henry VIII, the poet Thomas Wyatt the elder was also imprisoned in the Tower, threatened with the same charges. He was, however, freed. [Which has sometimes made me wonder about the element of justice in the matter. If Henry VIII and Cromwell didn't care about the true guilt or innocence of Anne and George Boleyn and the other men, what's one more head? The randomness of who lived and died confuses me, I guess.]

Be that as it may, Elena Maria Vidal has brought a new book about Sir Thomas Wyatt, poet and courtier, to our attention. From The Guardian review of Graven with Diamonds: The Many Lives of THOMAS WYATT, Courier, Poet, Assassin, Spy by Nicola Shulman:

At the centre of this nexus of romance and gossip was the dangerously appealing figure of Anne Boleyn. Beautiful, sharp-witted and no less sharp-tongued, she was 17 when she arrived at court in 1521, after two years soaking up the modish graces and affectations of the French court. She immediately caught the eye of Henry, though it would be 12 years before they were secretly married – the inconveniences of a royal divorce, and its epoch-making repercussions across Europe, accounting for this delay. The extent of Wyatt's intimacy with Anne remains uncertain. According to contemporary sources, when he learned of the king's intention to marry her, Wyatt confessed that he had been her lover. When her star fell in 1536, he was imprisoned in the Tower, though he was never formally accused – as others were – of sexual relations with her. In a powerful poem, discovered by Kenneth Muir in Dublin in 1959, Wyatt records his feelings in prison – "These bloody days have broken my heart" – and perhaps his witnessing of Anne's execution from an upstairs window of the Bell Tower, where he was held: "The bell tower showed me such a sight / That in my head sticks day and night. / There did I learn out of a grate, / For all favour, glory or might, / That yet circa regna tonat [around the throne it thunders]."

Queen Elizabeth II in Ireland

Queen Elizabeth II recently surpassed King George III in longevity on the throne yet she is visiting the Republic of Ireland for the first time in her almost 60 year old reign, starting today, May 17. The Catholic Herald published this analysis of her visit:

There have been difficult moments in her long reign, and the week of May 17 to May 20 may prove a challenging phase for the Queen. That is the week when she visits the Republic of Ireland, the first British monarch to go to what was once called “southern Ireland” since her grandfather’s state visit to Dublin in July 1911. The Queen has made over 380 state visits during her reign, and to many parts of the globe: but until now the Republic of Ireland has been the one destination which was never included.

It is hardly necessary to repeat the numerous reasons why such a visit could not take place until now: but the partition of Ireland and the “Troubles” in the north certainly played a part. Anglo-Irish relations have been through some tricky times in recent decades, reaching a nadir in the 1970s and 80s. In 1977, when Elizabeth made a formal visit to Belfast, she was hanged in effigy in the Falls Road. In 1979, her uncle by marriage, Lord Mountbatten, was murdered just off the Sligo coast. In response, Irish republicans would cite many distressing events – such as Bloody Sunday in 1972 – when Crown troops opened fire on unarmed citizens. And there’s another point: in Ireland, the British Army was historically referred to as “Crown forces” – the notorious Black and Tans being an example – so that “the Crown” itself was linked with the conduct of some of its less worthy soldiery.

The author and columnist at The Catholic Herald, Mary Kenny is also the author of Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate Between Ireland and the British Monarchy and Goodbye to Catholic Ireland. It will be interesting to follow coverage of this event.

May 17, 1536: A Bloody Day on Tower Hill

Anne Boleyn's brother George, Viscount Rochford, three of Henry VIII's courtiers (Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton) and court musician Mark Smeaton were executed on Tower Hill on May 17, 1536.

Last year Gareth Russell presented an excellent series of posts on the days between Anne Boleyn's arrest and her execution. He provided great detail about the conduct of these five men on the scaffold--it was indeed a bloody, bloody day. I recommend you go to his blog and peruse his review of these posts, updated this year.

May 16th Departures

On May 16, 1532, Sir Thomas More resigned as Chancellor of England, succeeded by Thomas Cromwell. More concluded that he could not influence Henry VIII anymore. He might have hoped for some peace and quiet, but Henry and Cromwell wanted his approval and benediction. More did not attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn; in 1533 and 1534 he was accused of first, accepting bribes, and second of supporting Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent. The first accusation was ridiculous and the second easily disposed of. Nevertheless, he ended up in the Tower of London in 1534 while the government continued to pressure him to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Succession. As he complained of chest pains before, his health deteriorated while in the Tower.

On May 16, 1568, Mary Stuart, the deposed Queen of Scotland left that country after losing the Battle of Langside and escaped to England. She hoped for some support from Elizabeth Tudor to regain her throne. Instead, she was moved from castle to castle (Carlisle Castle, Bolton Castle, Tutbury, and Sheffield) under different degrees of comfort and activity while a trial was held to determine her guilt in her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley's death. The trial ended in a strange verdict and she was neither declared guilty or innocent. The only thing that was certain is that she was not going to return to Scotland as Queen. Mary was held under house arrest and became the focus of plots to remove Elizabeth from the throne of England. As she had been a very active person, riding and hunting, the enforced inactivity wore on her.

Both of them were finally brought to trial--Thomas More at Westminster Hall; Mary at Fotheringay Castle. Both St. Thomas More and Mary, Queen of Scots ended their lives kneeling before blocks of wood, waiting for the executioner's blow to fall--More on July 6, 1535 and Mary on February 8, 1587.