Preview: The Protomartyrs of the English Reformation

On Monday, June 15, we'll start our survey of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales on the Son Rise Morning Show. Matt Swaim and I will talk about the three Carthusian priors who suffered being hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn Tree on May 4, 1535. Saints John Houghton, Augustine Webster, and Robert Lawrence are among the five protomartyrs of the English Reformation. St. John Houghton, portrayed by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán holding his heart, asked before he was eviscerated by the hangman "Jesus, Jesus, what will you do with my heart?"

The Tudor administration particularly wanted the Carthusians to accept the change in Church leadership in England because of their great reputation for holiness and integrity. Houghton had argued in 1534, when presented with the Oath of Succession, that Carthusian hermit monks had no interest in worldly events and their opinion should not matter to the world (the King). For that argument, Father Houghton and Father Humphrey Middleton were imprisoned in the Tower of London for a month. They later agreed to take the Oath of Succession, persuaded that the King's authority over the Church would be limited "as far as the law of Christ allows". This was the same oath that Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More refused to take in April of 1534 and were thus imprisoned in the Tower of London at the King's pleasure, attainted traitors and stripped of all worldly possessions and rights. Fisher was even removed from his see and was no longer considered a bishop (a Lord and Member of the House of Lords).

Having sworn the Oath of Succession, the Carthusians went back to their way of life and hoped for peace and to be let alone. Then on February 1, 1535 the revised Oath of Supremacy proclaiming Henry VIII the Supreme Head and Governor of the Church of England without that limiting phrase was presented to the Carthusians. They weren't going to be let alone.

Prior John Houghton led the Carthusians to do what hermit monks do: fast and pray for three days and then offer the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit to decide whether or not they could take the Oath of Supremacy. Dom David Knowles praises Houghton in his Saints and Scholars: Twenty-Five Medieval Portraits, for his leadership and docility: When Father Houghton elevated the Host during the Canon of the Mass, he felt the Holy Spirit's call to remain united with the universal Church, and refuse the Supremacy Oath. So he, Webster and Lawrence asked Henry VIII for an exemption from taking this oath, again on the stated grounds that they were hermit monks who had no interest in or influence on worldly events, and that their opinions on worldly matters should not matter to the world (Henry VIII). For that argument, they were arrested and called before a special commission in April 1535, and sentenced to death, after the jurors on the commission were told to change their first, not guilty, verdict.

Fathers Webster and Lawrence were priors of the other Carthusian houses in England, of Epworth and Beauvale, respectively. Two others were sentenced to death with the three Carthusian priors: Father Richard Reynolds of the Briggitine House of Syon and Father John Haile, the Vicar of Isleworth.

Then comes that great scene on May 4, 1535. Margaret More Roper was visiting her father, Thomas More in the Tower of London, and they were standing by a window so that they just happened to see the five martyrs to be dragged away from the Tower to Tyburn. More said to his daughter, who was there to persuade her father to take the Oath of Supremacy:

Lo, dost thou not see (Meg) that these blessed fathers be how as cheerful going to their deaths, as bridegrooms to their marriages? Wherefore thereby mayest thou see (mine own good daughter) what a difference there is between such as have in effect spent all their days in a strait, hard, penitential, and painful life religiously, and such as have in the world, like worldly wretches, as thy poor father hath done, consumed all the time in pleasure and ease licentiously. For God, considering their long-continued life in most sore and grievous penance, will not longer suffer them to remain here in this vale of misery, and iniquity, but speedily hence take them to the fruition of his everlasting deity: whereas thy silly father (Meg) that, like a most wicked caitiff, hath passed forth the whole course of his miserable life most pitifully, God, thinking him not worthy so soon to come to that eternal felicity, leaveth him here yet, still in the world further to be plunged and turmoiled with misery.

Margaret More Roper had her answer: her father would not take the Oath. Prior John Houghton would soon have his answer: what would Jesus do with his heart?

More about the scene at Tyburn on Monday at about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Please listen live here; the podcast will be archived here.