Thomas Ken, Nonjuror and Hymnist

Thomas Ken died on March 19, 1711 at Longleat House, as the guest of Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth. Ken had lived there with an annual pension since he had refused to foreswear his oath of loyalty to King James II in 1691, becoming a non-juror. The irony of his refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to King William III and Queen Mary II is that he had been one of the seven bishops who had refused to publish and proclaim James II's Declaration of Indulgence in 1688. As the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Thomas Ken was a thorough-going High Church Anglican without a shred of Anglo-Catholic sympathy for the Roman Catholic Church.

Along with the other bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury, he was arrested by James II and placed the Tower of London and charged with rebellion and sedition. At their trial, the bishops were acquitted; a real blow to James's plans. Yet, Ken had sworn an oath to James as the rightful king and he did not accept the parliamentary arrangements that brought James' son-in-law and "ungrateful" daughter to the throne.

According to this site,

He was born in 1637 and reared by his half-sister Anne and her husband the well-known angler Izaak Walton. He became a clergyman and served for a year at the Hague as chaplain to Mary, Princess of England and Queen of Holland, niece of King Charles II of England and wife of the Dutch King William of Orange. During this year he publicly rebuked King William for his treatment of his wife the said Mary, which may be why he was chaplain there for only a year. Upon his return to England, he was made Royal Chaplain to King Charles. The King had a mistress, Nell Gwyn, and for his convenience wished to lodge her in his chaplain's residence. Thomas sent the King a sharp refusal, saying that it was not suitable that the Royal Chaplain should double as the Royal Pimp. Charles admired his honesty and bluntness, and when the bishopric of Bath and Wells became available soon after, he declared, "None shall have it but that little man who refused lodging to poor Nellie!" Ken was accordingly made a bishop. When Charles was on his deathbed, it was Ken whom he asked to be with him and prepare him for death.

(Nevertheless he was asked to leave the room and some point when Charles II was received into the Catholic Church, according to reports.)

Under the next king, James II, brother of Charles, matters were different. James converted to Roman Catholicism, the religion of his mother, and political turmoil followed. James issued a decree known as the Declaration of Indulgence, which decreed that various public offices formerly open only to Anglicans, should thereafter be open to all persons. It was feared that the King would appoint large numbers of Roman Catholics to positions of power, and eventually transfer to them the control of the government. When the King commanded the bishops to proclaim the Declaration of Indulgence, seven of them refused to do so and were by the King's command imprisoned in the Tower of London. The people of London rioted, and the bishops were freed and carried in triumph through the streets of the city. Soon after, Parliament offered the crown to the King's daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange and James fled into exile.

William and Mary naturally began their reign by demanding oaths of allegiance from all persons holding public positions, including the bishops. Thomas Ken and others (known as the Non-Jurors -- the older meaning of "juror" is "one who takes an oath," hence "perjurer" as "one who swears falsely") refused to take the oath, on the grounds that they had sworn allegiance to James, and could not during his lifetime swear allegiance to another monarch without making such oaths a mockery. They were accordingly put out of office.

Today, he is best known for several hymns that he wrote, such as those beginning:

Awake my soul, and with the sun
thy daily course of duty run.
Cast off dull sloth, and joyful rise
to pay thy morning sacrifice.

and

All praise to thee, who safe hast kept
and hast refreshed me while I slept!
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless life partake.

and

All praise to thee, my God, this night
for all the blessings of the light.
Keep me, oh keep me, King of Kings,
beneath Thine own almighty wings.

and

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Defending "Utopia"

December 2016 will mark the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More's Utopia. In History Today, Joanne Paul writes about the place of Utopia in More's reputation as a statesman:

It may be time, however, to reassess the place of More’s Utopia in this litany of his shortcomings. This year we have an opportunity to do so, as it marks the quincentenary of the publication of Utopia in Louvain in December 1516.

Guy suggests that More’s imaginary country is ‘totalitarian par excellence’, citing its lack of pubs, brothels and ‘secret meeting place[s]’, as well as the mandate against discussion of public policy outside of the popular assembly. This totalitarianism, Guy suggests, lies at the heart of More’s later attitude towards heretics and suggests that his ‘repressive discipline’ against them was similar to the ‘totalitarianism of Utopia’.

Describing Utopia as totalitarian (a 20th-century term) paves over what More was attempting to do in his text, which was to remind his readers of the importance of community. For More, the prioritisation of self-interest had the effect of tearing apart the bonds that ought to unite people. To use examples from Utopia: land-owners who enclosed common land for sheep-grazing, or greedy kings who overstretched themselves in their conquest of new lands both tore apart the unity of the commonwealth. The island of Utopia becomes the inverse of such tendencies. Homes are allocated to families for only a decade at a time, there are no locked doors and no personal possessions.

Rather than totalitarian, Utopia is fundamentally republican. Like property, political power is shared, reflecting More’s belief that authority resides in the body of the people. Within Utopia’s cities, households elect representatives who, in turn, elect both the councillors and their prince. Council and prince together make decisions in regular consultation with the people. The country as a whole is ruled by a general council, the members of which are, once again, elected directly by the people. Thus, although discussing public matters outside the public forum is punishable by death, for fear of the division and distortion of public opinion, the people are directly involved in every political decision made on the island.

Read the rest there.

More lived in a kingdom ruled by a monarch and he served that monarch while also representing the people as a member of Parliament. He wanted his prince, Henry VIII, to make decisions for the kingdom in consultation with Parliament, and therefore he defended Parliament's right to free speech in debating the king's policies and voting on the funding of the same. The Center for Thomas More Studies offers many tools for the interpretation of Utopia here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This English version of the Shield or Breastplate of St. Patrick (also called the Lorica) was created by Cecil Frances Alexander, an Anglican hymnist much influenced by the Oxford Movement and particularly by John Keble. More about her here. She is probably best known for her Christmas hymn, "Once in Royal David's City." This version of St. Patrick's prayer was included in the Church of Ireland hymnal:

I bind this day to me forever bypower of faith Christ's incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river,
his death on the cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb,
his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom I bind
unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today the power of
God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to harken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward,
the Word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word;
praise to the God of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord!

Image credit.

Monteverdi, Mozart, and Handel

My husband and I concluded our auditions of the other three LPs we purchased last week. My husband offers these particulars re: our stereo equipment: all of these records were "played on recycled "green" classic stereo equipment from the 70's and 80's: NAD 7100 receiver, Boston Acoustics A70 speakers, and Yamaha YP-B2 turntable." He has another turntable that he considers better for rock and roll. He is the audiophile, obviously.

The Handel and Mozart discs he considered excellent as far as their condition and sound fidelity. The Monteverdi Madrigals were recorded at a very low sound level: he had the volume on the NAD turned up pretty high.

Peter Frankl, the soloist on the Mozart piano concertos record, is on the faculty of the Yale School of Music and just turned 80 last October! He was 30 years old when he recorded that Turnabout album with the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra:

Pianist Peter Frankl made his London debut in 1962 and his New York debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell in 1967. Since that time he has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, all the London orchestras, and the major American orchestras. He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Abbado, Boulez, Davis, Haitink, Maazel, Masur, Muti, Salonen, and Solti, and his world tours have taken him to Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He has appeared over twenty times at London’s BBC Promenade Concerts and has been a regular participant at the Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Verbier, Kumho, and Casals Festivals.

In the United States, Peter Frankl has been a regular guest artist at festivals including Aspen, Chautauqua, Marlboro, Norfolk, Ravinia, Santa Fe, and Yellow Barn. For many years the Frankl-Pauk-Kirshbaum Trio traveled the world. His many chamber music partners have included Kyung Wha Chung, Peter Csaba, Ralph Kirshbaum, and the Tokyo, Takács, Guarneri, Bartók, Fine Arts, and Lindsay quartets. He has given master classes all over the world, including the Royal Academy and Royal College in London, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Van Cliburn Institute in Texas, and in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Seoul.

Among his recordings are the complete works for piano by Schumann and Debussy, Bartók and Chopin solo albums, a Hungarian anthology, concertos and four-hand works by Mozart, the two Brahms piano concertos, the Brahms violin and clarinet sonatas, the Brahms trios, Bartók pieces for violin and piano, and the piano quintets by Brahms, Schumann, Dvorák, Martinu, and both Dohnányis.

In recognition of his artistic achievements, Mr. Frankl was awarded the Officer’s Cross by the Hungarian Republic, and on his seventieth birthday he was given one of the highest civilian awards in Hungary for his lifetime artistic achievement in the world of music. He is an honorary professor of the Liszt Academy and has been on the Yale School of Music faculty since 1987.

The two piano concertos date from Mozart's Vienna period, one composed in 1782 (n. 11) and the other in 1784 (n. 15). You may hear a sample of the 11th concerto here and the 15th here.

The Handel was performed by the Cento Soli (One Hundred Soloists) Orchestra of Paris, about whom I can find no further information. The Monteverdi Madrigals were performed by the Nuovo Madrigaletto Italiano and I hoped to find a list of the singers because their voices were so wonderful. Edward Tatnall Canby provides the notes again and explains away the lack of translation by stating the lyrics can't be adequately translated anyway!

Two More Priests Martyred in York

On March 16, 1589, these two priests suffered being hung, drawn and quartered in York. Robert Dalby was from Hemingbrough in the East Riding of Yorkshire and lived at first as a Protestant minister. Becoming a Catholic, he entered the English College at Rheims on 30 September 1586 to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest at Châlons on 16 April 1588. It was on 25 August that year that he set out for England. He was arrested almost immediately upon landing at Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast and imprisoned in York Castle.

There is some doubt about the early life of Blessed John Amias. One story is that he was indeed John Amias or Amyas, born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, England, where he married and raised a family, exercising the trade of cloth-merchant. On the death of his wife, he divided his property among his children and left for the Continent to become a priest. There is also a possibility that he was really William Anne (surname), youngest son of John and Katherine Anne, of Frickley near Wakefield.

Regardless of his actual name, on 22 June 1580, a widower calling himself "John Amias" entered the English College at Rheims to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest in Rheims Cathedral on 25 March 1581. On 5 June of that year Amias set out for Paris and then England, as a missionary, in the company of another priest, Edmund Sykes, of whom we will hear again soon. Of his missionary life we know little. Towards the end of 1588 he was seized at the house of a Mr. Murton at Melling in Lancashire and imprisoned in York Castle.

Yorkshire, as I've commented before on this blog and in Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation, was one of those districts of England where recusancy and Catholicism was particularly strong. This History of York describes the Catholic Resistance during Elizabeth I's reign, providing some details of the trouble the queen had in asserting her authority over the practice of religion in the north.

Pope Pius XI beatified these two priests among the 137 martyrs on December 15, 1929.

Blessed William Hart, March 15, 1583

From this account, taken from the old Catholic Encyclopedia, Blessed William Hart traveled widely to fulfill his vocation as priest after returning to the Catholic faith. The Catholic college and seminary had to move from Douai to Reims because of religious wars in the Spanish Netherlands (where Douai then was). He has that fascinating connection to St. Margaret Clitherow and her household. The Trappes scholarship was established at Lincoln College by Joyce or Jocosa Frankland, who also established fellowships at Brasenose College, where she is remembered in one of the College Graces:

Qui nos creavit, redemit et pavit, sit benedictus in aeternum. Deus, exaudi orationem nostrum. Agimus tibi gratias, Pater caelestis, pro Gulielmo Smyth episcopo, et Ricardo Sutton milite, Fundatoribus nostris; pro Alexandro Nowel, Jocosa Frankland, Gulielmo Hulme, Elizabetha Morley, Mauritio Platnauer aliisque benefactoribus nostris; humiliter te precantes ut eorum numerum benignissime adaugeas.

Ecclesiam Catholicam, et populum Christianum custodi. Haereses et errores omnes extirpa. Elizabetham Reginam nostram et subditos eius defende. Pacem da et conserva, per Christum Dominum nostrum.(May he who hath created, redeemed and provided for us be blessed forever. Hear our prayer, Lord. We give thee thanks, Heavenly Father, for William Smyth, Bishop and Richard Sutton, Knight, our Founders. For Alexander Nowel, Joyce Frankland, Elizabeth Morley, Maurice Platnauer and for our other benefactors, humbly beseeching thee that thou wilt add to their number in goodness.

Safeguard the catholic Church and all Christian people. Root out all heretical waverings. Defend Elizabeth our Queen and her subjects. Grant peace and preserve it, through Christ our Lord. Amen.) 

The other martyr mentioned in this entry is Blessed William Lacy who was executed on August 22, 1582 in York. He also had been held in irons. Being held in irons was a form of torture leading to weakness and open sores. Since both priests were held in the underground dungeon, that certainly meant they were neglected, left in filth and darkness, without adequate food and water.

Born at Wells, 1558; suffered at York, 15 March, 1583. Elected Trappes Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, 25 May, 1571, he supplicated B.A., 18 June, 1574. The same year he followed the rector, John Bridgewater, to Douai. He accompanied the college to Reims, and returned thither after a severe operation at Namur, 22 November, 1578. He took the college oath at the English College, Rome, 23 April, 1579, whence he was ordained priest. On 26 March, 1581, he left Rome, arriving at Reims 13 May, and resuming his journey 22 May. On reaching England he laboured in Yorkshire. He was present at the Mass at which Blessed William Lacy was captured, and only escaped by standing up to his chin in the muddy moat of York Castle. Betrayed by an apostate on Christmas Day, 1582, and throne into an underground dungeon, he was put into double irons. After examination before the Dean of York and the Council of the North, he was arraigned at the Lent Assizes.

From the unprofessional account of his trial, which states that he was arraigned on two counts, we may be fairly certain that he was on trial on three, namely: (1) under 13 Eliz. c. 2 for having brought papal writings, to wit his certificate of ordination, into the realm; (2) under 13 Eliz. c. 3. for having gone abroad without royal license; and (3) under 23 Eliz. c. 1. for having reconciled John Wright and one Couling. On what counts he was found guilty does not clearly appear, but he was certainly guilty of the second. 

So this brief entry, properly read, reveals a great deal about Blessed William Hart's endurance and faithfulness in pursuing his vocation and serving the Catholic minority in England. Like all of the Catholic martyrs of this era, his story is both unique and the same: the same pattern of exile, danger, torture, and death but with individual details that are so wonderful to contemplate.

Blessed John Henry Newman and His Letters

Edward Short writes a review of Father Roderick Strange's new book, John Henry Newman: A Portrait in Letters, for The Catholic World Report:

In John Henry Newman: A Portrait in Letters, Father Roderick Strange brilliantly distills Newman’s approximately 20,000 extant letters into a rich, revelatory selection, which covers every period of the great convert’s long life and gives readers a judicious view of the man’s pastoral counselling, controversies, and hard-won accomplishments, even though the latter, in a life riddled with failure, can often be seen only sub specie aeternitatis.

One reason why Father Strange has succeeded in his selection is that he has not sought to produce a “life in letters,” knowing that such an epistolary life could never capture the full complexity of his subject. Letters, after all, by their very nature—as Father Strange recognizes—do not lend themselves to a “smooth, rounded, complete narrative.” Moreover, if made to do the necessarily multi-faceted work of such a narrative, a selection of letters would inevitably risk being tendentious. Instead, Father Strange has sensibly chosen to make his selection a portrait of Newman, which may not make any claim to definitiveness, but nonetheless gives the reader a marvelously rich, evocative, critical sense of the charm, integrity, caritas, and genius of his fascinating subject.

Short focuses, for example, on one of Newman's controversies--from his Anglican period--the Bampton Lectures of Renn Dickson Hampden:

We should certainly keep Newman’s “unswerving” adherence to doctrinal integrity in mind when we read his letters to Renn Dickson Hampden, the Oriel fellow, with whose heterodox Bampton Lectures (1832) falsifying the Trinity and the Incarnation Newman took such spirited exception. “I dare not trust myself to put on paper my feelings about the principles contained in it,” Newman wrote of the pamphlet Hampden wrote as a follow-up to his lectures, “tending as they do in my opinion altogether to make shipwreck of Christian faith.” Hampden, a shy, reticent, retiring man, never altogether recovered from Newman’s principled attack, though he did what he could to defend himself. “I charge you with malignity,” the indignant don wrote in response to Newman’s accusations, “because you have no other ground of your assault on me but a fanatical persecuting spirit,” to which Newman replied, in the third-person, with comic formality: “He altogether disallows Dr. Hampden’s imputation that he has been guilty of dissimulation, and falsehood, and dark malignity.”

What is most significant about the Hampden controversy is how it reveals the unsparing polemicist in Newman. When it came to principles of doctrine, he never compromised. As he wrote one of his friends with regard to Hampden, “There is no doctrine, however sacred, which he does not scoff at—and in his Moral Philosophy he adopts the lowest and most groveling utilitarianism as the basis of Morals—he considers it is a sacred duty to live to this world—and that religion by itself injuriously absorbs the mind.” For Newman, the other fellows of Oriel might not be irreproachable, but they each had virtues to counterbalance their flaws. Hampden, on the other hand, as far as Newman could see, “judging by his writings, [was] the most lucre loving, earthly minded, unlovely person one ever set eyes on.” With an opponent as fierce as this, Hampden could be forgiven for deciding to spend most of his later career in his garden, far away from the brickbats of debate, only emerging briefly to oppose the heretical Essays and Reviews in 1860, by which time Newman had long since removed himself from the jousts of Anglicans.  

He concludes:

The shelf of good books on Newman is small, but Father Roderick Strange’s John Henry Newman: A Portrait in Letters is a welcome addition to it. Those familiar with Newman and those unfamiliar with him will find it an altogether splendid read.

Read the entire review there.

With the volumes of letters now published, there could be a new Newman publishing industry, making the letters accessible by topic (even if there is no comprehensive index yet, as Short notes): like the book I read a couple of years ago on Newman's spiritual direction to friends and family, Edward Short's books on Newman--and I eagerly await the third--certainly belong on the shelf with Father Strange's book.

Music for Royalty at a Commoner's House

My husband and I visited several royal courts Thursday night: in France, including Provence and Burgundy, Italy, Spain, Germany, Prussia. I suppose we spent the most time at Versailles, listening to works by Mouret, Couperin, Lully, de Lalande, Philidor, Naudot, Chedeville, and de Boismortier! 

We had visited Spektrum Muzik in Wichita's Delano shopping district and bought several Nonesuch, Turnabout, and Everest classical music recordings from the mid-1960s to late 1970s. The first two LPs pictured above were in great shape; perhaps the previous owners had made reel-to-reel recordings the first time and never played the LPs again; the fidelity was great throughout. The fidelity and sound quality on the Rampal flute sonatas record was not as good: my husband gave it a C. Rampal played all the flute parts on the album, using sound-on-sound recording techniques when the composition was for two or more flutes.

The liner notes for the Symphonies And Fanfares For The King's Supper were quite eloquently written by Edward Tatnall Canby, as he explained some aspects of courtly life during the reign of King Louis XIV, the role of music at the Court, and the expanding appreciation of this French music. Music does not have to ponderous and heavy with meaning as the nineteenth century thought, he concluded. We can even enjoy marches played on drums without fear of war and conflict! The David Munrow/Christopher Hogwood Early Music Consort album was varied, with many vocal selections sung by countertenor James Bowman but the second side was pretty short, even by LP standards (21:17). All three LPs had brilliant and comprehensive liner notes, providing composer biographies, historical context, and musical exposition.

We have three more to listen to: Mozart's piano concertos (15 and 11); Handel's oboe and string orchestra concertos, and some Monteverdi Madrigals, one Turnabout and two Nonesuch records. My favorite record cover? The Handel, with the composer at the keyboard:

It reminds me of the history essay Richard Lederer gathered from teachers: "Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian and half English. He was very large." 

More to come.

William Haydock of Whalley Abbey

According to Joseph Gillow's The Haydock Papers: A Glimpse into English Catholic Life Under the Shade of Persecution and in the Dawn of Freedom (1888), William Haydock, a Cistercian monk, was executed two days after the last Abbot of Whalley Abbey in 1536 for his participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace:

William Haydock was hanged two days later in a field adjoining the abbey known by the name of Le Impe-yard, which signifies a nursery for young trees — the tree of faith that grew so strong in the Haydock family. His body for some reason was allowed to continue suspended on the gibbet entire, and ultimately was secured and secretly removed by his nephew and namesake to Cottam Hall, where it remained until its discovery when the hall was pulled down in the early part of this century.

The Haydocks are one of the great Catholic families of Lancashire, and even if this Haydock has not been beatified or canonized, his brother, Blessed George Haydock, born 20 years later in 1556 took up the mantle of martyrdom. Other family members, like Father George Haydock and his brother Thomas, the publisher of his Haydock Bible, continued to serve the Church. William Haydock's father Vivian also became a priest years after his wife Helen died when George was born. The family motto was the end of verse 20 from the sixteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel: Tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium (Your sorrow shall be turned into joy!).

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Joseph Gillow, 1850 to 1921, was a

biographical lexicographer and genealogist, was born on 5 October 1850 at Frenchwood House, Preston, Lancashire, the son of Joseph Gillow (1801–1872), a magistrate, and his wife, Jane Haydock, née Smith (1805–1872), of Lea. The Gillows were a long-established Roman Catholic yeoman family who could trace an unbroken pedigree back to Conishead Priory in 1325. Gillow's father was a benefactor to the Catholic cause, and his mother was descended, by her mother, from the Haydocks of Cottam, another recusant family.

Joseph Gillow was educated at Sedgley Park, near Wolverhampton (1862–3), and St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw (1864–6), where his uncles and brothers had studied for the priesthood, and discovered there an abiding interest in Lancashire and family genealogy, resulting in his publication of The Tyldesley Diary in 1873, edited from a Lancashire diary kept during the years 1712–14, and in 1888 of The Haydock Papers, a survey of Catholic life in Lancashire as seen through generations of a local family, compiled from family papers and other records.

On 11 September 1878 Gillow married Ella (1850–1945), daughter of John McKenna, a brewer, of Dunham Massey, and secured a private income for the rest of his life. This left him free to pursue his literary studies unimpeded, and he conceived the idea of producing a continuation of Dodd's Church History, covering the period from 1688 onwards and making use of later material collected by the Revd John Kirk and George Oliver, the Catholic directories, and various manuscript sources from Catholic archives. This was followed by a formal commission from the Catholic publishers Burns and Oates to produce the Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics in five volumes—volume one appearing in 1885.

As work progressed on the new dictionary, however, it became evident that seven volumes were required, but the publishers were inflexible, insisting that it be completed in five as agreed. To this Gillow reluctantly complied, giving them, in 1902, the last volume, heavily excised and abbreviated. In spite of this the dictionary is still one of the landmarks of Catholic history, particularly useful for the bibliographies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Catholics, for which Gillow drew extensively from his own library of 4000 volumes. Cardinal Gasquet described the dictionary as a ‘veritable storehouse of information’ (Gasquet, vii), but as no index was available until 1986, much of the anonymous and pseudonymous literature that Gillow had identified remained locked within its pages.

Blessed Thomas Atkinson and His Rosary

Blessed Thomas Atkinson had returned to England as a missionary priest in 1588 and was executed in York on March 11, 1616 (four hundred years ago today) when he was 70 years old: 

Thomas Atkinson, of Yorkshire, England, studied for the priesthood in Reims, France, where he was subsequently ordained in 1588 around the age of forty-two. Returning to England, he traveled about on foot to minister to his fellow Catholics, becoming a special friend of the poor among them. It was only after breaking a leg that the indefatigable priest resorted to traveling by horse instead. His labors in the service of persecuted Catholics became so well known that, to escape arrest by the Protestant authorities, he could only journey safely by night. In the end, he was betrayed by an informer and captured while staying at the home of a Catholic family. Then about seventy, Father Atkinson was led to prison together with the couple that had hosted him, and their children. The “incriminating evidence” found by the government officials in the priest’s possession consisted of Rosary beads and the text of an indulgence. Condemned to death by drawing and quartering, Father Atkinson is said to have faced death “with wonderful patience, courage, and constancy, and signs of great comfort.”

He was beatified by Blessed John Paul II in 1987 as one of the Eight-five Martyrs of England and Wales. Obviously, as he had served his Catholic flock for decades, quietly and unnoticed, he was no danger to the state. But he was captured during a period of James I's reign when fear of Catholicism was heightened and the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, was much in favor of persecuting Catholics.