Preview: Margaret Powell, Recusant Catholic Confessor

Among the beatified and canonized English martyrs, there are only several women (Saints Margaret Ward, Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Blessed Margaret Pole), but there are many whom Father Henry Sebastian Bowden would call Confessors. In his daily Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors, he highlights one such Confessor, Margaret Powell, who was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death in 1642 for aiding and abetting Blessed Thomas Bullaker, OSF, one of the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II. So on Monday, February 5, we'll continue our series on the the Son Rise Morning Show by remembering this brave woman.

I'll be on at our usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Listen live here or catch the podcast later.

Father Bowden titles her entry for February 6 (p. 48) "The Sunamitess Rewarded" with this verse from 2 Kings 4:8: "now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread; and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread." Margaret Powell is the "great woman"; Blessed Thomas Bullaker the prophet Elisha; the bread is the Holy Mass in Bowden's analogy.

As he describes her, Margaret Powell was "of good birth," but "reduced to great poverty through her sufferings for the Faith." Like Saint Margaret Clitherow, she was married to a Protestant, but still ministered to priests in prison, and often had one visit their home to say Mass. In October 1642, Father Thomas Bullaker "was seized while saying Mass, and Margaret and her boy, aged twelve, who was serving the Mass, were taken with him".

One of the sources Father Bowden mentions in his introduction is "Mrs. Hope's Franciscan Martyrs". Mrs. Anne Hope's Franciscan Martyrs in England was published in 1878; she was convert to Catholicism after studying Church History and moved to Edgbaston to be close to Saint John Henry Newman at the Birmingham Oratory (are you surprised?) She provides these details about Margaret Powell (p. 140):

M. de Marsys, a gentleman in the household of the Comte d'Harcourt, the French ambassador, tells us that this lady was Margaret Parkins, the wife of Mr. Powell, a Protestant. She was about thirty years of age, and though connected with the principal families of England, was reduced to great poverty by the constant persecutions which she suffered for the cause of God. She had an only son whom she educated with great care in the Catholic faith. She devoted herself to prayer, fasting, and good works, especially to waiting upon priests who were ill in the prisons, gladly shutting herself up with them, and nursing them with such care and liberality that even the most hardened heretics could not but admire her extra- ordinary virtue.

Mrs. Hope also provides Father Bowden these comments about her behavior at trial (p. 150):

One of the judges, who was a Puritan, exhorted her to think of her soul and her family, and to embrace the religion of the kingdom instead of giving her life for papistical superstitions. But she answered, smiling, that "as soon as the Parliament should have made choice of a religion they might invite her to receive it; as at the present moment they were disputing on it among themselves, it was ridiculous to make such a proposal to her." Her eloquence, her modest and courageous bearing, and her presence of mind touched even the Protestants who were present. The judges, therefore, finding that they drew from her only disagreeable truths and repartee which exposed them to the laughter of the bystanders, sent her back to prison.

  

British History Online has some detail about the indictments of Father Bullaker and Margaret Powell (though the dates don't match Father Bowden's timeline):

August 31: Also record of the arraignment &c. of Thomas Bullaker for being a catholic priest; and also of Margaret Powell, for receiving and harbouring the said Thomas Bullaker (pro hospitacione Tho. Bullaker). Against the name of Thomas Bullaker appears this minute "non vult directe respondere nec se super patriam ponere, Ideo consideratum est quod predictus Thomas Bullaker trahetur super hurdellam usque furcas de Tiborne et ibidem suspendetur et vivens ad terram prosternatur, quodque interiola et membra sua e corpore suo abscindentur et in conspectu comburentur, quodque caput ejus abscindetur, et corpus ejus in quatuor partes dividetur, Et quod corpus et quarteria ejus ponantur ubi Dominus Rex assignare voluerit."—Against the record of Margaret Powell's arraignment appears the memorandum "po se Repr usq' prox sine ball" = She puts herself 'Not Guilty' on a jury of the country, and is reprieved without bail till next Session.—In the record of the proceedings of the next Session, viz., of 7 December, 18 Charles I., appears this memorandum, "Itt is thought fitt and soe desired by this Courte that Mr. Serjeant Phesant doe attende the House of Lords to acquainte theire Lordships with the proceedings against one Margarett Powell, convicted for the felonious receivinge Thomas Bullaker a Popishe Priest (who was executed the last Session) knowinge him to bee soe, And to knowe theire Lordships' pleasure whether shee shall bee executed according to the judgment given against her or be reprieved." G. D. Reg.

Thus, Father Bullaker was condemned to being hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn in great Latin detail and Margaret, representing herself, pled not guilty and was bound over for trial. A later entry further notes:

September 11: True Bill that, at St. Sepulchre's London co. Midd. on the said day, Thomas Bullaker late of the said parish clerk, born within the kingdom of England, and after the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 1 Eliz., and before the said 11 Sept., 18 Charles I., made and ordained "Sacerdos anglice a Seminarye Preist" by authority derived and pretended from the See of Rome, was and remained &c.; and that, at St. Sepulchre's London co. Midd. on the said 11 Sept, 18 Charles I., knowing him to be a priest of such kind as is abovesaid, Margaret Powell late of the said parish spinster received, harboured, comforted and maintained the said Thomas Bullaker. The clerical note over Thomas Bullaker's name at the bill's head is, "Nihil dic' Judiciu' qd. trahetur suspendetur et quartiatur videlt.' At the bill's foot appears the usual record in full of the sentence for execution at Tiborne, in the manner prescribed for the execution of felons, convicted of high treason. A note over Margaret Powell's name shows that at a subsequent Session, held on 7 Dec, 18 Charles I., she was found 'Guilty' and sentenced to be hung. G. D. R., 5 Oct., 18 Charles I.

Blessed Thomas Bullaker was executed at Tyburn on October 12, 1642, but according to Father Bowden's memento, Margaret Powell was not hanged as sentenced (evidently Parliament ordered her reprieved in December 1642). Bowden comments on her reaction:

At her trial, she had "expressed her joy at the prospect of laying down her life for the Faith in which she had been born, and which she hoped with God's mercy to bear unspotted to the grave." When she heard that her "sentence was deferred, she burst into tears; yet quickly recovering herself, she offered her new lease of life to God as obediently as she had accepted death." 

Whether she remained in prison for the rest of her life or was released, the record does not say--nor could I find out the fate of "her boy, aged twelve." But we might remember that the reward of the Sunamitess was the life of her son, miraculously conceived although her husband was old and miraculously restored to life by the Prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:16-37)

Blessed Thomas Bullaker, pray for us!

Margaret Powell, rest in peace! (and pray for us!)

Blessed Thomas Bullaker, OFM

These are the bare outlines of Blesssed Thomas Bullaker's life:
Born the only son of a pious, well-to-do physician c.1603 in Midhurst, Sussex, England. Studied at the English College in Saint-Omer, France. Studied at the Royal English College at Valladolid, Spain. Joined the Franciscans in 1622, taking the name John Baptist. Ordained in Valladolid c.1627. He returned to England where he ministered to covert Catholics for twelve years. Arrested twice, he was sentenced to death for the crime of being a priest. hanged, drawn, and quartered on 12 October 1642 at Tyburn, London England. Beatified 22 November 1987 by Pope John Paul II.

Nearly all the priests martyred during the recusant or penal era of English history followed that pattern. They left home and family, studied abroad, returned and worked, suffered, and died. As you keep seeing that pattern you could become too used to it and not stop to think about all those bare facts.

Thomas's father, a pious and successful physician and his mother, the wife of a pious and successful physician, might yet deeply have regretted their son leaving home and becoming a priest, especially a missionary priest. It could be a danger to them; James I passed laws that penalized the families of England emigrants to Catholic colleges abroad. They might have had a prominent position in town; his father's medical practice may have suffered. They would have been concerned about him, so far from home and even more concerned about him when he came home, although they may never have seen him again.--I don't think I'm making up details that are too outside the realm of possibility.

He studied at St. Omer and at Valladolid, Spain: again, leaving England to study secretly on the Continent was illegal--the whole enterprise of traveling across country to a port and crossing the England Channel was difficult and dangerous. And then studying at the English colleges meant poverty and hard work. Father Robert Parsons, SJ had to find help from French and Spanish nobles and royalty to pay for housing, food, books, etc. This was not just a matter of attending college out of state!

Twelve years a missionary and arrested twice: Remember this meant life on the run, always in disguise, in danger all the time. Even if being arrested and imprisoned did not include torture, there was always discomfort, illness, and mistreatment to deal with. And finally, the trial and execution: being hung, drawn, and quartered, enduring a horrible death.

Blessed Thomas Bullaker, pray for us!