The facts:
~Blessed Edward Stransham, priest and martyr--A native of Oxford,
born about 1554, earning his BA from St. John's College in 1575-76. Then he went
to Douai in 1577 and Reims in 1578. Because he was ill he returned to England to
recuperate; then went back to Reims in 1579; ordained in 1580. In 1581 he
returned to England as a missionary priest, but was still suffering from
consumption; he left England in 1583, bringing 12 Oxford converts with him to
Reims. After a stay in Paris, he returned to England and was arrested while
saying Mass in London in 1585 and executed at Tyburn on January 21,
1586.
~Blessed Nicholas Wheeler (or Woodfen), priest and martyr--Born at
Leominster in 1550, he studied for the priesthood in Reims, after ordination he
returned to England with Edward Stransham, and was executed with him at Tyburn
in 1586. (He is honored at this church in
Herefordshire.)
~Saint Alban Roe, OSB, priest and martyr--Born in Suffolk
in 1583, after his conversion to Catholicism, he became a Benedictine and was
ordained; he was arrested several times during his ministry, and exiled and
imprisoned for seventeen years. He was executed at Tyburn in 1642.
~Blessed
Thomas Green (Reynolds), priest and martyr--Born under the name Green, he
trained at Rheims, Valladolid and Seville; exiled from England once, he returned
and spent fourteen years imprisoned until his execution at Tyburn in 1642 at the
age of 80.
The significance:
In 1586, Blessed William Freeman witnessed the executions of Stransham and Wheeler. He became
a Catholic, went to Reims, was ordained and returned to England as a missionary
priest. He was hung, drawn, and quartered for that crime on 13 August 1595in
Warwick, after spending some time in Stratford-on-Avon.
Notice, however,
that the time Fathers Stransham and Wheeler spent in England was relatively
short. Although Stransham traveled back and forth between England and the
Continent because of his health (how poorly he must have fared in prison while
waiting trial and execution!), he and Wheeler received no second chances once
finally captured--during some periods of Elizabeth I's reign, that was the
common practice: capture, torture (if some plot was suspected), trial,
execution.
St. Alban Roe and Blessed Thomas Green, ministering during the
Stuart dynasty, however, received different treatment. They were captured,
imprisoned, and exiled, sent back to the Continent--then they returned. Their
long final imprisonments were spent in relative "freedom". St. Alban Roe was
allowed to leave his cell in the Fleet prison, minister to Catholics, and return
at night for lock-up. In 1641 he was transferred to close confinement within the
strict Newgate prison and was finally tried in 1642 and found guilty of treason
under the statute 27 Eliz c.2 for being a priest. [The authorities really didn't
know what to do with him and at trial Roe perplexed the judge so much that he
suspended his sentence of execution!] Just before his death, Alban asked the
sheriff if his life would be spared if he renounced his Catholic religion and
became an Anglican. The sheriff swore he would be spared if he did. Alban then
said to all: “See, then, what the crime is for which I am to die, and whether my
religion be not my only treason... I wish I had a thousand lives; then would I
sacrifice them all for so worthy a cause.”
His companion, Blessed Thomas Reynolds
(Green) had also been exiled in 1606, during the reign of James I--after the
Gunpowder Plot!--but had returned to England to serve Catholics until he was
arrested in 1628. He spent fourteen years in prison before his trial and
execution. Why the long prison sentences, the relative freedom, the delay in
trial and execution? Because Charles I was reigning without Parliament! "When he
finally had to recall Parliament and the Long Parliament convened, however, the
hangings began again in earnest (20 between 1641 and 1646 including Fr. Alban
[and Fr. Reynolds])" Ampleforth Abbey notes.
The situation: think of the cold these men endured those January mornings. After
all dangers of their missionary efforts, the discomforts of imprisonment, and
the anticipation of the horrendously painful and humiliating death they were
about to undergo, they were shivering with cold. The hurdles they were tied to,
on their backs, bumped and jostled on frozen ground. St. John Roberts, executed
in December of 1610, managed to joke about the cold: when someone said he should
be wearing a cap, he asked "are you afraid I'll catch a cold?"; when he arrived
at the scaffold he saw the fire (which would actually be used to burn his guts)
and said "I see you have prepared a hot breakfast for us!" It's clear that the
demeanor and steadiness of these four men moved the crowds to empathy--and at
least in one case we know of, conversion.
The stories of the English
Catholic martyrs--like all the Church's martyrs from Apostolic times until
today--never cease to inspire!
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