A Marian Era Priest: Blessed Thomas Woodhouse

I'll post my preview for Monday's episode of our Son Rise Morning Show series tomorrow: Saint Richard Reynolds of Syon Abbey and Saint John Stone of the Austin Friars House in Canterbury will be our subjects!

Blessed Thomas Woodhouse is claimed by the Jesuits as their English Recusant era protomartyr because he was accepted into the order the year before his execution. According to the Singapore Jesuit website:

Fr Thomas Woodhouse was the first Jesuit to die for Christ in the conflict between the Catholic Church and the English monarchy between 1573 and 1679. Very little is known about his life prior to his imprisonment under Elizabeth I. He was born in England and was ordained probably in 1558, during the final year of the reign of Mary Tudor, the Catholic queen. He could not accept Elizabeth I who instituted religious reforms, including a non-Catholic prayer book, together with the 1559 decree declaring her supremacy in matters of religion. He resigned his parish position in Lincolnshire in 1560 and became tutor to the children of a wealthy family in Wales. He later left this position because of religious differences.

He was caught saying Mass, violating the law, on May 14, 1561 and held in prison for 12 years, able to minister to many Catholics and others in prison. Remember that prisons at this time in England were not run by the government and funded by tax dollars, they were run on a pay as you go basis by proprietary prison keepers. Prisoners had to pay their keep; somehow Father Woodhouse received enough donations to pay his room and board in prison.

Fr Woodhouse continued to celebrate Mass whenever he could, despite laws against the Catholic Mass and was arrested on May 14, 1561, while at Mass. He was imprisoned in London’s Fleet Prison where he spent the next twelve years. He was able to develop an apostolate to other prisoners because the prison officials were quite tolerant. He brought some of the inmates back to the Church. He also wrote short essays which he tied to a stone and threw them out whenever he saw a suitable individual pass his cell window. In 1572, he wrote to the Jesuit provincial in Paris as there was no Jesuit mission in England, requesting to enter the Society of Jesus. He was accepted. In his enthusiasm, he wrote a letter to William Cecil, the queen’s treasurer asking him to persuade the queen to accept the pope’s authority. Instead of doing what Fr Woodhouse asked, Cecil ordered him to be brought to trial on June 16, 1573 at Guildhall and when he repeatedly refused to acknowledge the judges’ authority and contested the competence of a secular tribunal to try a priest on religious matters, he was found guilty of high treason and was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

His act of treason was denying the Queen's supremacy, which he had denied with that letter to William Cecil, urging Elizabeth to return to the Church and accept Papal authority. 

Fr Woodhouse met a martyr’s death three days after his trial at Tyburn. He was the second priest, but the first Jesuit, to be executed in England on religious grounds. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on Dec 9, 1886.

The first priest "to be executed in England on religious grounds" was Blessed Thomas Plumtree.

More about Blessed Thomas Woodhouse here.

The Protomartyr: St. Cuthbert Mayne

St. Cuthbert Mayne is the protomartyr of the seminary priests trained on the Continent who returned to England as missionaries. He was executed--hanged, drawn, and quartered--on November 30, 1577 on rather flimsy evidence, there being no laws yet against Catholic priests entering the country (that is that they weren't automatically traitors by being present in the country having been ordained abroad). According to the Catholic Encyclopedia entry, written before he was canonized among the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI:

Martyr, b. at Yorkston, near Barnstaple, Devonshire (baptized 20 March, 1543-4); d. at Launceston, Cornwall, 29 Nov., 1577. He was the son of William Mayne; his uncle was a schismatical priest, who had him educated at Barnstaple Grammar School, and he was ordained a Protestant minister at the age of eighteen or nineteen. He then went to Oxford, first to St. Alban's Hall, then to St. John's College, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1570. He there made the acquaintance of Blessed Edmund Campion, Gregory Martin, the controversialist, Humphrey Ely, Henry Shaw, Thomas Bramston, O.S.B., Henry Holland, Jonas Meredith, Roland Russell, and William Wiggs. The above list shows how strong a Catholic leaven was still working at Oxford. Late in 1570 a letter from Gregory Martin to Blessed Cuthbert fell into the Bishop of London's hands. He at once sent a pursuivant to arrest Blessed Cuthbert and others mentioned in the letter.

He was ordained in 1575 and came to England with St. John Payne (Payne and Mayne!) in 1576. When Father Cuthbert Mayne was arrested in June, 1577, authorities had some trouble in gathering evidence that corresponded with charges punishable by death:

He was brought to trial in September; meanwhile his imprisonment was of the harshest order. His indictment under statutes of 1 and 13 Elizabeth was under five counts: first, that he had obtained from the Roman See a "faculty", containing absolution of the queen's subjects; second, that he had published the same at Golden; third, that he had taught the ecclesiastical authority of the pope in Launceston Gaol; fourth, that he had brought into the kingdom an Agnus Dei and had delivered the same to Mr. Tregian; fifth, that he had said Mass.

As to the first and second counts, the martyr showed that the supposed "faculty" was merely a copy printed at Douai of an announcement of the Jubilee of 1575, and that its application having expired with the end of the jubilee, he certainly had not published it either at Golden or elsewhere. As to the third count, he maintained that he had said nothing definite on the subject to the three illiterate witnesses who asserted the contrary. As to the fourth count, he urged that the fact that he was wearing an Agnus Dei at the time of his arrest was no evidence that he had brought it into the kingdom or delivered it to Mr. Tregian. As to the fifth count, he contended that the finding of a Missal, a chalice, and vestments in his room did not prove that he had said Mass.

Nevertheless the jury found him guilty of high treason on all counts, and he was sentenced accordingly. His execution was delayed because one of the judges, Jeffries, altered his mind after sentence and sent a report to the Privy Council. They submitted the case to the whole Bench of Judges, which was inclined to Jeffries's view. Nevertheless, for motives of policy, the Council ordered the execution to proceed. On the night of 27 November his cell was seen by the other prisoners to be full of a strange bright light. The details of his martyrdom must be sought in the works hereinafter cited. It is enough to say that all agree that he was insensible, or almost so, when he was disembowelled.

Since he was arrested at Francis Tregian's house, that gentleman was punished:

Tregian was indicted under the Statute of Praemunire prohibiting dissemination of papal bulls. Mayne had a souvenir copy of a proclamation regarding the 1575 Holy Year dispensation, and it was supposed that he intended to give it to Tregian. Tregian was held in the Marshalsea for ten months before being returned to Cornwall for trial. At first the jury would return no verdict, but after threats from the judges a conviction was obtained.

Tregian's death sentence was remitted to imprisonment and his property confiscated. He was incarcerated at Windsor and then in various London prisons for twenty-eight years, eventually winding up at Fleet Prison, where his wife joined him. On the petition of his friends, he was released by King James I. . . .

After his pardon by King James, Tregian retired to Madrid, where he enjoyed a pension from King Philip III of Spain. He died at the Jesuit hospice at St Roque, Lisbon, where he was buried upright under the west pulpit, symbolic of his stand against Queen Elizabeth.

God bless Francis Tregian! St. Cuthbert Mayne, pray for us!

Blessed Thomas Woodhouse, English Jesuit Protomartyr

According to this website for the Jesuit Curia in Rome:

Thomas Woodhouse (1535-1573) was the first Jesuit to die in the conflict between pope and English crown, although he was only admitted to the Society just before his arrest. He was probably ordained a priest during the final year of the reign of Mary Tudor, the Catholic queen. He could not accept Elizabeth I who instituted religious reforms, including a non-Catholic prayer book after she became queen in 1558; even less could he abide the 1559 decree declaring her supreme in religious matters. So Woodhouse resigned his parish position in Lincolnshire in 1560 and became tutor to the children of a wealthy family in Wales. However, he resigned that post as well over religious differences. He continued to celebrate Mass when he could and was arrested on May 14, 1561, while at Mass. He was imprisoned in London's Fleet Prison for 12 years, but was able to develop an apostolate to other prisoners because of his warder's tolerance.

At some point in 1572 he wrote the Jesuit provincial in Paris because the English mission was not yet established, and asked to become a member of the Society. He was accepted, but in his enthusiasm wrote a letter to the queen's treasurer asking him to persuade to accept the pope's authority. Instead of doing what the priest asked, the treasurer, William Cecil, ordered him brought to trial on June 16, 1573 where he was found guilty of treason for speaking unfavorably of the queen. Three days later he was taken to Tyburn to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

He was among the 54 martyrs beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 as a secular priest because his application to the Jesuits and their acceptance of him was not known at the time. Bede Camm wrote about him in Lives of the English Martyrs (1914). He must have perplexed and exasperated the Elizabethan officials:

He was repeatedly examined both publicly and privately. Once when he had denied the Queen's title before the Recorder of London and other commissioners, some one said, " If you saw her Majesty, you would not say so, for her Majesty is great." "But the majesty of God is greater," he answered. 

At length in April, 1573, he was arraigned at the Guildhall. He denied the authority of the judges, saying " they were not his judges, nor for his judges would he ever take them, being heretics and pre tending authority from her that could not give it them." He also protested against the competency of secular judges to try priests and spiritual causes, as the earlier Relation tells us, and was treated with the greatest indignity and contumely and held for a fool. He was found guilty of high treason and sentenced accordingly, but two months elapsed before his execution.

Before as after his condemnation he ever kept up the same bright, sweet demeanour, the same intrepidity, the same eager desire to suffer for his Master. When first a smith came to rivet irons on him he rewarded him with two shillings. When the same man afterwards came, on some occasion, to take them off, he stood waiting, cap in hand, after his work, hoping for a present, and at last said, "Sir, this day seven-night when I burdened you with irons, you rewarded me with two shillings: now that I have taken them away, for your more ease, I trust your worship will reward me much better." "No," said the martyr, "then I gave thee wages for laying irons on me, because I was sure to have my wages for bearing them; now, thou must have patience if thou lose thy wages, since thou hast with taking away mine irons taken also away those wages I have for carrying them. But come when you will to load me with irons, and if I have money thou shalt not go home with an empty purse." 

When some one told him he was to be removed to the Tower to be racked, "No," said he, "I cannot believe that; but notwithstanding bring me true news here that it is so and thou shalt have a crown of gold for thy pains." From this answer it may be gathered that he had light from God about what was to happen to him: and so, again, the next day a servant brought him word it was reported through all London he should be put to death the next week, "No," he answered, "I shall not die these two months and more." And so it happened. 

 After his sentence he was not taken back to his old prison, but was committed to Newgate. On his way to the prison he was much ill-treated, "being tugged and lugged hither and thither, weak and sore laden with irons; insomuch as going up the stairs at Newgate, he fell down divers times on the stairs; and to one that seemed by his words to pity him, he answered with a smiling countenance that these troubles were sweet to him."Some one in the crowd gave him a blow on the face. "Would God," he said turning to him, "I might suffer ten times as much that thou might go free for the blow thou hast given me. I forgive thee and pray to God to forgive thee even as I would be forgiven." 

At Newgate he was put into the place consecrated by the martyrdom of the Blessed Carthusian Fathers who had been starved to death five-and- thirty years before. The author of the "Relation of 1574" says it was the part of the prison appropriated to robbers, and a most dismal place. But after a time he was removed to another chamber, where a number of ministers were allowed access to him and disputed with him. Some of them he confuted, surprising those present by his learning; but when the Dean of St. Paul's came he severely rebuked him, and ended with the words, "Begone, Satan." 

His behavior at his execution was also brave and resolute:

He was drawn in the usual way to the place of execution. Hearing him pray in Latin, some of the crowd wanted him to pray in English so that all might join with him. He answered that with the Catholics he would willingly, but as for the others he would neither pray with them nor have them pray with him or for him; though he would willingly pray for them. The Sheriff was impatient at what he called his obstinacy, and cried out, "Away with him, executioner, strip him of his garments, put the rope about his neck and do it quickly." Then he called to the martyr to ask pardon of God, the Queen, and the country, but Blessed Thomas answered, "Nay, I on the part of God, demand of you and of the Queen, that ye ask pardon of God and of holy Mother Church, because contrary to the truth ye have resisted Christ the Lord, and the Pope, His Vicar upon earth." These bold words drew shouts from the ever-fickle crowd of " Hang him, hang him, this man is worse than Storey." [Blessed John Storey] 

He was cut down alive, so that "he went between two from the gallows to the fire, near which he was spoiled, and came perfectly to himself before the hangman began to bowel him ; inasmuch as some have said he spoke when the hangman had his hand in his body seeking for his heart to pull it out."

St. Cuthbert Mayne, Protomartyr

St. Cuthbert Mayne:

Martyr, b. at Yorkston, near Barnstaple, Devonshire (baptized 20 March, 1543-4); d. at Launceston, Cornwall, 29 Nov., 1577. He was the son of William Mayne; his uncle was a schismatical priest, who had him educated at Barnstaple Grammar School, and he was ordained a Protestant minister at the age of eighteen or nineteen. He then went to Oxford, first to St. Alban's Hall, then to St. John's College, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1570. He there made the acquaintance of Blessed Edmund Campion, Gregory Martin, the controversialist, Humphrey Ely, Henry Shaw, Thomas Bramston, O.S.B., Henry Holland, Jonas Meredith, Roland Russell, and William Wiggs. The above list shows how strong a Catholic leaven was still working at Oxford. Late in 1570 a letter from Gregory Martin to Blessed Cuthbert fell into the Bishop of London's hands. He at once sent a pursuivant to arrest Blessed Cuthbert and others mentioned in the letter.

Cuthbert was in the country, and being warned by Blessed Thomas Ford, he evaded arrest by going to Cornwall, whence he arrived at Douai in 1573. Having become reconciled to the Church, he was ordained in 1575; in Feb., 1575-6 he took the degree of S.T.B. at Douai University; and on 24 April, 1576 he left for the English mission in the company of Blessed John Payne. Blessed Cuthbert took up his abode with the future confessor, Francis Tregian, of Golden, in St. Probus's parish, Cornwall. This gentleman suffered imprisonment and loss of possessions for this honour done him by our martyr. At his house our martyr was arrested 8 June, 1577, by the high sheriff, Grenville, who was knighted for the capture. He was brought to trial in September; meanwhile his imprisonment was of the harshest order. His indictment under statutes of 1 and 13 Elizabeth was under five counts: first, that he had obtained from the Roman See a "faculty", containing absolution of the queen's subjects; second, that he had published the same at Golden; third, that he had taught the ecclesiastical authority of the pope in Launceston Gaol; fourth, that he had brought into the kingdom an Agnus Dei and had delivered the same to Mr. Tregian; fifth, that he had said Mass.

As to the first and second counts, the martyr showed that the supposed "faculty" was merely a copy printed at Douai of an announcement of the Jubilee of 1575, and that its application having expired with the end of the jubilee, he certainly had not published it either at Golden or elsewhere. As to the third count, he maintained that he had said nothing definite on the subject to the three illiterate witnesses who asserted the contrary. As to the fourth count, he urged that the fact that he was wearing an Agnus Dei at the time of his arrest was no evidence that he had brought it into the kingdom or delivered it to Mr. Tregian. As to the fifth count, he contended that the finding of a Missal, a chalice, and vestments in his room did not prove that he had said Mass.

Nevertheless the jury found him guilty of high treason on all counts, and he was sentenced accordingly. His execution was delayed because one of the judges, Jeffries, altered his mind after sentence and sent a report to the Privy Council. They submitted the case to the whole Bench of Judges, which was inclined to Jeffries's view. Nevertheless, for motives of policy, the Council ordered the execution to proceed. On the night of 27 November his cell was seen by the other prisoners to be full of a strange bright light. The details of his martyrdom must be sought in the works hereinafter cited. [CAMM, Lives of the English Martyrs, II (London, 1905), 204-222, 656; POLLEN, Cardinal Allen's Briefe Historie (London, 1908), 104-110; COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.; CHALLONER, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, I; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.; DASENT, Acts of the Privy Council (London, 1890-1907), IX, 375, 390; X, 6, 7, 85.] It is enough to say that all agree that he was insensible, or almost so, when he was disembowelled. A rough portrait of the martyr still exists; and portions of his skull are in various places, the largest being in the Carmelite Convent, Lanherne, Cornwall.

The date of his execution is variously reported on-line; some sources say November 29 and some November 30. Beatified 29 December 1886 by Pope leo XIII (cultus confirmation) and canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI (decree of martyrdom). The Catholic Parish of St. Cuthbert Mayne in Launceston, Cornwall celebrates his feast today. As one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, he shares the feast day of May 4; as one of the Douai Martyrs, he would also share that feast of October 29! Gracewing published a biography of this protomartyr in 1984.