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catholic church. These, with other great favours, father Heath had received from the hand of God, by the prayers of the virgin Mary, and therefore was resolved to try this expedient in the present exigency; and to make a pilgrimage for this purpose to our lady of Montacute, a place of great devotion in Brabant. He took Gand in his way, where he applied himself to father Marchant, the commissary-general of his order, but all in vain so to Montacute he goes, and there makes his supplication to the blessed virgin. Now see the fruit of these devotions: he takes his journey back by Gand, and there again applies himself to father Marchant, humbly entreating him for leave to go upon the English mission, to labour there in the conversion of his country, and lay down his life in defence of the truth. What rhetoric he employed now with the commissary (who had before given him a flat denial,) the compiler of his life has not acquainted us. But certain it is, that he expressed himself to him in a most pathetic manner, and made such a vigorous assault, that the good old father was glad to capitulate, and surrender at last upon terms. We have here father Marchant's relation in his own words: "This man, says he, inebriated with the spirit, some months since came to our presence, desiring, according to his rule, to go to the English that were gone astray from the faith, alledging no other reason than this: that he might shed his blood, that he might be slain with, and for the English, his brethren according to the flesh. I was against it; I commended, indeed, his spirit, though moved with too much fervour. At last I signed his obedientials, upon condition his immediate superior would join his approbation.' Now, this was the English commissary, father Mason, to whom father Heath had formerly applied, and had been refused. He goes to him, therefore, now again, and shows him his letter of leave signed by father Marchant, but is still answered, that he cannot be spared. However, the commissary promises to take the matter into consideration, and recommend it to God. He did so; and though he had resolved to refuse his consent, yet after all, (and he calls God to witness, that what he says is the real truth,) he felt a secret impulse, strongly determining him to join his approbation.

Father Heath having now gained his point, made haste back to his convent, to bid adieu to his brethren, and to set forward upon his journey to England with all convenient speed His friends were surprised to see what a change the joy of his heart had now made in his very looks, by an unusual gaiety and cheerfulness which shone in his countenance. They would have provided him secular apparel, and money for his jour ney, but this he modestly refused, and set out from Douay penny less and barefoot in his friar's habit. When he came to Dunkirk, be procured a tailor to metamorphose his friar's weed into a coat, waistcoat, and breeches, and to turn his capuche into a kind of a sailor's cap, in which he sowed up some writings in defence of the catholic religion; and thus equipped, he goes on board. Here he meets with a German gentleman, who being much taken with the modest and humble deportment of the good man, not only paid for his passage, and provided him necessaries during his voyage, but also kindly offered him money to bear his charges from Dover to London, which father Heath modestly refused, and so

made the best of his way barefoot, begging a bit of bread for God's sake, when hunger compelled him to it.

At London he arrives, wearied, as well he might, having travelled barefoot forty miles that day, and it being the winter season. It is now time to take up his quarters, and give some little rest and refreshment to the body. But how shall this be done, for money he has none, nor acquaintance? however, he ventures to call at the Star Inn, near London Bridge, but the people of the house finding he had no money, turned him out of doors at eight o'clock, in a cold winter night; and where now to put his head, and what course to take till morning, he knew not. At length, wearied with standing in the streets, he resolved to lie down at some citizen's door, where he might meet with some little shelter from the cold air; and accordingly he laid himself down, and composed himself to rest, designing in the morning to call upon father Colman, in Newgate.

After some time, the master of the house coming home, stumbles upon him, and taking him to be a shoplifter, calls the watch, sends for a constable, and upon a strict search discovers the writings that were concealed in his cap. Upon this, he is committed to the Compter, and the next day is carried before my lord mayor, where his writings and himself being examined, he owned himself to be a priest, and so was sent to Newgate. After some days he was examined by a committee of the parliament, to whom he also owned himself a priest; and being asked to what intent he came into England, he frankly told them, he came upon a very lawful and commendable business, viz: the conversion of his countrymen from sin and heresy. What heresy? said they. Even the Protestant heresy, said he, the Puritan heresy, the Anabaptist heresy, the heresy of the Brownists, and many others. Being told that his coming over was against the laws of the nation, he answered, that the preaching of the apostles was also against the laws of the nations to which they preached; and that his coming over to preach the gospel in England, could no more be treason than the preaching of Christ and his apostles.

Soon after this he was brought to the bar, being indicted upon the 27th of Elizabeth, for being a priest and returning into England, and therefore guilty of high-treason. The trial was soon over, for as he had acknowledged himself a priest, he was brought in guilty of the indictment; and accordingly received sentence as in cases of high-treason; which as soon as he had heard, making a low reverence to the bench, he said, My lords, I give you thanks for the singular honour you have done me; for now I shall die for Christ.'

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During the short interval betwixt his condemnation and execution, the prison was continually thronged with crowds of visitants from all parts of the town, as well protestants as catholics: amongst the former were reckoned above forty ministers, who came to confer with him in matters of religion; some of them seemed very much to pity him; and all in general spoke well of him, as a man of great parts and learning. As to the catholics they came to confess to him, or to consult him in matters of conscience; so that with one and the other, he could scarce get a moment's time for a little repose.

On the day of execution, being called for by the officers of justice, he readily obeyed the summons, and immediately went down into the street, where the sledge was placed, with a modest cheerfulness in his looks. He offered to lay himself down on the ground to be drawn in that manner over the stones and through the mire; but this was not allowed; so he was laid on the sledge, and drawn according to sentence to Tyburn: when he came thither he readily and cheerfully got up into the cart under the gallows, saying with an audible voice, Into thy hands, O Lord I commend my spirit. The rope being about his neck, and having obtained leave to speak, he protested that his return into England, was for no other design, but that he might spend his life and labours in the conversion of his country; and that this was the only cause for which he was brought to that place to suffer an ignominious death. But a minister interrupted him, saying, that he was not condemned for religion, but for seducing the people. Father Heath, calmly replied, With no other justice, can I be called a seducer by you, than with what my Lord Jesus Christ was called a seducer by the Jews. Here he was commanded to be silent, and he readily obeyed; and not being able to obtain what he desired, (viz: to hang naked like his crucified Saviour,) joining his hands before his breast, his eyes shut, he employed about half an hour in profound recollection and silent prayer, without any other sensible motion but now and then a devout sigh. After that he had recited aloud the church hymn for a martyr, Martyr Dei qui unicum, &c., it being the day of St. Anicetus pope and martyr, for his last prayer, he made use of these short aspirations; my Jesus, pardon me my sins! Jesus, convert England! Jesus, have mercy on this country! O England, turn thyself to the Lord thy God! After which the cart was drawn away, and he left hanging, his hands lifted up towards heaven, and his eyes cast down, and in this posture he quietly expired. After his death he was cut down, bowelled and quartered; and his quarters fixed upon four of the city gates, and his head upon London bridge.

N. B. He reconciled in the very cart, one of the malefactors that were executed with him.

He suffered on the 17th of April, 1643, in the forty-third year of his age, and the twentieth of his religious profession.

Father Heath, a little before the sentence of death was passed upon him, wrote out of prison, the following letter to a priest, his intimate friend.

VERY REVEREND FATHER,

• Your consolations have rejoiced my soul. The judges have not yet given sentence. I beseech the divine goodness, that it may answer my desires, that I may suffer death for my Lord Jesus Christ. Alas, father! what other thing can I desire than to suffer with Christ, to be reproached with Christ, to be crucified with Christ, to die a thousand deaths that I may live for ever with Christ? for if it be the glory of a soldier to be made like his lord, God forbid I should glory in any thing but in the cross of my crucified Lord. Let then the executioners come, let them come, let them tear my body in pieces, let them gnaw my flesh with their teeth, let them pierce me through and through, and

grind me to dust. For I know, I know full well how profitable it will be for me to die for Christ. The moment of this suffering doth work an eternal weight of glory in heaven. May your reverend paternity be pleased to pray for me, a miserable sinner, who will ever be in the wounds of Christ, until death be swallowed up in victory.

Your reverence's most humble servant,

F. PAUL, of St. Magdalen.

It is also remarked of F. Heath, in Mr. Ireland's diary of Douay college, that he declared in prison, though he always was convinced that the martyrs found much joy and consolation when they were to suffer for Christ, yet he never could have imagined this delight to be so exceeding great, as he now found by his own experience.

It is likewise the tradition of the English Franciscans in Douay, that when F. Heath was executed at Tyburn, the first that had the news of it in their convent, was his aged father, then a lay-brother amongst them, informed by a vision of his son.

ARTHUR BELL, PRIEST, O. S. F.*

ARTHUR BELL, who in religion was called father Francis, was born August 13, 1590, at Temple Broughton, the seat of his father, in the parish of Hanbury, six miles from Worcester; his parents were both virtuous, and of good families, his mother being sister to Francis Daniel, Esq., of Acton Place, near Long Melford, in Suffolk. He was brought up in the fear of God, and in grammar learning, privately at home in his mother's house, who was left a widow when he was eight years of age; afterwards he lived for some years with his uncle Daniel in Suffolk. At the age of twenty-four he went over to the English college of St. Omer's, where he employed a year in the study of rhetoric; and then was sent, by the fathers of the society, to the English college of St. Alban, the martyr, in Valladolid; where he studied his philosophy, and some part of his divinity, and was made priest; and not long after, took the habit of St. Francis, in the convent of Segobia, August 9, 1618, and having very much edified the whole community during the year of his probation, he was, by the unanimous votes of all, admitted to his solemn vows and profession, September 8, 1619. Not long after, F. Gennings, being about the restoring the English Franciscan province, and having authority from the general to call to him for this purpose the English friars, wherever they were to be found, sent for F. Bell from Spain to the English convent newly erected at Douay, where he employed two years more in the study of divinity, and then was made confessor, first of the poor Clares, at Graveline, and afterwards of the

* From Certamen Seraphicum, p. 127, &c., and from a manuscript sent me from St. Omer's.

nuns of the third order of St. Francis, at that time residing in Brussels, till about the year 1630, when he was chosen guardian for the first time of the convent of the English Franciscans at Douay, and made definitor of the province, discharging at the same time the office of lector or professor of the Hebrew tongue. But before he had gone through the usual term of his guardianship, he was called to Brussels by F. Joseph Bergaigne, the commissary-general of the order, (afterwards archbishop of Cambray,) and for the restoring the province of Scotland, was appointed its first provincial, and sent in that quality to the general chapter then held in Spain. After his return he was sent by the state commissarygeneral upon the English mission, where he arrived September 8, 1634. He laboured with great zeal, for nine years, in the mission, in converting souls to Christ, and then received the crown of martyrdom for his reward, which for the space of twenty years he had earnestly prayed for.

He was apprehended on the 6th of November, 1643, at Stevenedge, in Hartfordshire, by the parliament soldiers, upon suspicion of his being a spy, who, upon a strict search, found in his bags some papers, in which he had written out the lessons of the office of the blessed sacrament, and a form of blessing the cord of the confraternity of St. Francis, &c., which, after sending for the school-master of the town to interpret them, appeared, (not only to these military men, but also afterwards to to the committee of the parliament) dangerous matters, especially the form of blessing the cord, which they imagined to be some spell or conjuration. That day and the following night he passed under the guard of four soldiers, and the next morning was searched again, when they found about him a letter in Spanish, addressed to, or designed for the Spanish ambassador, then residing in London, in which was made mention of his being of the order of St. Francis; so that now they resolve to secure him, no longer as a spy, but as a suspected priest. This drew many officers and others to the place where he was detained. One of them asked him of what religion he was of? he readily answered, I am a catholic. What! said the other, a Roman catholic? How do you mean a Roman? said father Bell. I am an Englishman. There is but one catholic church, and of that I am a member. They all said, he was in the right to own his religion. That, said he, I will do, with the grace of God, to my last breath. Another asked him if he believed the pope to be the head of the catholic church? He answered in the affirmative; upon which there arose a dispute concerning the church and the pope, but in a confused manner, as is usual to this kind of disputants, who are ever running from one point to another: they brought their bibles to confute him, but in vain, for he showed them that they had shamefully corrupted even their very scriptures. In conclusion, he told them their arguing against church authority and infallibility, and grounding all things in religion upon the weak and uncertain bottom of private judgment, and private interpretation of the scriptures, (liable, as they acknowledged, to error,) was not a way to invite him to their religion; for that it would be a very unequal change to part with a church (which he was assured was an infallible guide, by the divine promises, as recorded in scripture,) for a religion which owned itself liable to error, and

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