This Morning: Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ

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. Matt Swaim and I will discuss Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ.

Please listen live here on the Sacred Heart Radio website; the podcast will be archived here; the segment will be repeated on Friday next week during the EWTN hour of the Son Rise Morning Show (from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. Eastern/5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Central).

You may have noticed that in my preview I emphasized that we were already moving on to another reign. There were just four martyrs among the 40 Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales who suffered during the reign of King James I--there are also several beatified martyrs--while half of the 40 canonized martyrs suffered execution (or in one case, death in prison under sentence of death) during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Why did Elizabeth I's regime condemn more Catholics--clerics and laity--to death for their religious beliefs? Why did James I's regime condemn fewer Catholic priests and even fewer Catholic laymen  (and no Catholic laywomen) to death for their religious beliefs? Why did the same pattern hold during the reign of Charles I?

Both monarchs feared plots against their reigns and their lives, but James I sought conciliation and peace with England's enemies, Spain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, while Elizabeth I, although she eschewed outright war most of the time because it was too expensive, maintained a combative posture against them and reached out more to the Protestant leadership on the Continent.

King James I negotiated marriage treaties for his son Charles with both Spain and France, and promised some leniency to Catholics in those treaties. He thought that making martyrs, using prison, torture, and execution to punish religious dissidents, was a sign of a weak and ineffective church. (He also maintained relationships with Protestant rulers and nations, marrying his eldest Elizabeth to Frederick V Elector Palatine, leader of the Protestant Union among the electors of the Holy Roman Emperor.)

You might say that Elizabeth I was more insular, emphasizing and even trying to extend the distance between England and the Continent, while James I wanted to reach out to the Continent and bring England and Scotland back in the European community--but both were seeking security and safety for their kingdoms and their reigns.

And Charles I, not only being married to a Catholic queen but loving her and wanting her happiness, was also reluctant to make Catholic martyrs. Today's martyr, Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ, was arrested, tried, and convicted far away from London--not transported across England to be questioned and tortured and then brought back to Lancaster for execution. 

The monarchy during the reign of Charles I--and the Stuart doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings--may have been in more danger from Parliament than it was from the Catholic Church and her allies in Europe. 

Throughout all three reigns, however, the common issue was the role of the monarch as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. As European rulers in the sixteenth and seventeenth century seemed to agree, that left no room for religious dissent and secular loyalty.

Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, pray for us!

Image Credit: Elizabeth receiving Dutch ambassadors, 1560s, attributed to Levina Teerlinc (public domain)
Image Credit: Henrietta Maria and King Charles I with Charles, Prince of Wales, and Princess Mary, painted by Anthony van Dyck, 1633. The greyhound symbolises the marital fidelity between Charles and Henrietta Maria (public domain)