This Morning: Last Words at Tyburn

Just a reminder that I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show at about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to continue our series on the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales. Anna Mitchell and I will discuss Saints Campion, Briant, and Sherwin, three of the most well-known martyrs of the Elizabethan era, primarily because of the greatness of St. Edmund Campion, SJ.

Please listen live here; the podcast will be archived here.

Richard Simpson researched and published the martyrs' last words at Tyburn on December 1, 1581 (pp 451-457) in his biography of Edmund Campion:

Campion suffered first. Before his execution, he proclaimed:

"I am a Catholic man and a priest; in that faith have I lived, and in that faith do I intend to die. If you esteem my religion treason, then am I guilty; as for other treason, I never committed any, God is my judge. But you have now what you desire. I beseech you to have patience, and suffer me to speak a word or two for discharge of my conscience."

He was not allowed to continue and his execution was almost another trial as he was questioned again about his loyalty to the Pope as the head of the Catholic Church and/or to the Queen of England. His final statement was:

"Wherein have I offended her? In this I am innocent. This is my last speech; in this give me credit — I have and do pray for her." Then the Lord Charles Howard asked of him for which queen he prayed, whether for Elizabeth the queen. To whom he answered, "Yea, for Elizabeth, your queen and my queen, unto whom I wish a long quiet reign with all prosperity." 

After Campion was butchered (although he may have been dead after hanging), it was Ralph Sherwin's turn:

When he had done with Campion, the hangman, with his hands and bare arms all bloody, seized hold on the next victim, saying to him, "Come, Sherwin, take thou also thy wages." But the martyr, nothing dismayed, reverently kissed the blood on his hands, and climbed up into the cart, where he stood some moments in prayer, with his eyes shut and hands lifted up to heaven. Then he asked if the people looked for any speech from him. Many of the people and some of the more honourable sort crying out "Yes," he began, with a manly courage and loud voice, first to render thanks to each of the three Persons of the Eternal Trinity for the mercies and blessings bestowed upon him; and then was about to give an account of his faith, when Sir Francis Knowles bade him confess his treason. "I am innocent of any such crime," was his reply. Being farther pressed, he said, "I have no occasion to tell a lie: it is a case where my soul is at stake ; and although in this short time of mortal life I am to undergo the infamy and punishment of a traitor, I make no doubt of my future happiness through Jesus Christ, in whose death, passion, and blood I only trust." 

He was again pressed to acknowledge his guilt and finally said:

"If to be a Catholic only, if to be a perfect Catholic, is to be a traitor, then am I a traitor."

Before he was hanged he proclaimed: "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, be to me a Jesus!"

And finally, Briant:

After his butchery it was Briant's turn. He spoke little, making only a brief profession of faith and protestation of innocency from all offence, not only in deed, but in thought, against the Queen. But with his innocent and angelic face — he was a very fair young man, not more than twenty-eight years of age — he greatly affected all who saw him, especially when he said that he rejoiced exceedingly that God had chosen him and made him worthy to suffer death for the Catholic faith in company with Father Campion, whom he revered with all his heart. And, indeed, it was only his intimacy with the Fathers, and his refusal, amidst the most exquisite tortures, to reveal anything about them, that was the real cause of his death.

Saint Edmund Campion, pray for us!

Saint Ralph Sherwin, pray for us!

Saint Alexander Briant, pray for us!