king James's accession to the throne, and in prison reconciled great numbers to the Catholic church. He was afterwards made abbot, first of Casmir, then of Lambspring, which dignity he resigned, and ended his days at Paddington, near London, much esteemed by all that knew him, for his virtue and sanctity. 9. William Nappier, alias Russel, called in religion father Marianus, a native of Oxford, and a father of the holy order of St. Francis. He was tried and condemned at the Old Bailey, at the same time with Mr. Corker, but reprieved, and after a long imprisonment sent abroad; where he died, in the Franciscan convent at Douay, in 1693, aged 78. 10. Charles Parry, priest, conjectured of the secular clergy. He was tried and condemned at the same time and place. When he heard the sentence, he cried out, Te Deum laudamus, &c. Whether he died in prison, or survived the storm, has not been ascertained. 11. Henry Starkey. He was younger brother to John Starkey, of Darley, in Cheshire, esq. was one of the first that appeared in arms for the king in the civil wars, in whose service he lost 4000l. and one of his legs, which was taken off by a cannon ball. Being sent into banishment, he resumed his studies, and by dispensation was made priest. He was tried and condemned for his character, at the same time and place with Mr. Corker, &c. but was reprieved. 12. Lionel Anderson, alias Munson. He was a gentleman's son of Lincolnshire, of a good estate, but, becoming a Catholic, relinquished all his worldly pretensions, and entered into the holy order of St. Dominic, and was ordained priest. He was tried and condemned at the same time and place with Mr. Corker, &c. but was pardoned by the king. 13. William Wall, alias Marsh and Marshall. He was brother to father John Wall, who suffered at Worcester; was born in Lancashire, studied his humanity at St. Omer's, his philosophy at Rome, his divinity partly at Rome, and partly at Douay. From Douay he went upon the mission in 1652; but afterwards going over again, he became a monk of the venerable order of St. Bennet, in the abbey of Lambspring. He was arraigned upon the testimony of Oates and Bedloe for the plot with Corker, made a brave defence, which may be seen in our Narrative of Oates's Plot, and was found not guilty; but afterwards was tried an condemned for a priest, in the company of the same father Corker, but was reprieved, and survived the persecution. 14. William Allison, priest, who died a prisoner in York castle. 15. Bennet Constable, priest, O. S.B. who died in Durham gaol, in the year 1683. 16. Alexander Lumsden, a Dominican friar. He was a native of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and therefore the jury, on declaring him to be a priest, brought in their verdict special, so he was not sentenced to death. 17. James Barker, alias Hesketh, priest, who was condemned at the Old Bailey, on the 27th of February, 1680. 18. Edward Turner, priest, S. J. who died in prison in London, in 1691. Forty-seven Priests, Confessors. In the year 1606, no less than forty-seven priests were sent from different prisons into perpetual banishment: their names are recorded in the Douay diary as follows:-Thomas Bramston, Philip Woodward, Abraham Sutton, William Singleton, Silvester Norrice, D.D. Richard Grisold, Thomas Burscough, Nicholas Jees, Ralph Buckland, George Stransham, F. Stafferton, F. Foster, Anth. Rouse, John Roberts, Henry Chaterton, Simon Pontinger, Thomas Flint, Humfrey Meridale, William Clarjenet, Thomas Hodson, Thomas Thoresby, William Harton, Christopher Lassels, Charles Newport, Richard Newport, John Lloyd, Robert Bastard, Edward Dawson, Robert Walsh, Hibern, John Hall, Hugh Whitall, John Starkey, John Copley, Fulk Nevile, John Siclemore, George Gervase, Thomas Garnet, James Blundell, Thomas Laithwait, Thomas Stanney, Robert Bradshaw, Thomas Green, Thomas Butler, Edward Coller, N. Pierson, Andrew White, N. Nightingal, And with them were banished two others not yet priests, viz. William Alabaster and Hugh Bowens. The same diary takes notice, Dec. 23, that Thomas Bramston, the first named in this catalogue, died at Douay college, aged 56, after having been twenty years a prisoner in Wisbech castle for his faith, and twice banished. We must here be allowed to diverge a little from the drift of our subject, to throw some light on the motives of the authors of the infamous plot of Titus Oates, which sent so many innocent victims to death, and others into perpetual banishment. The dispositions of James I. and his son Charles were naturally tolerant, and they were inclined to be lenient towards their Catholic subjects, from whom they received, on every occasion, the most tried loyalty. James had been christened in the Catholic church, and had always an aversion to the Puritanic notions to which the English people were then rapidly inclining. Aware of this friendly feeling, and dreading a return of the good old Catholic times, lest they should be compelled to regorge some of their ill-gotten estates, the leading reformers were perpetually devising means to keep the people in constant alarm at the supposed dangers of Popery, and this plot was a master piece in the art of forgery and calumny. The duke of York was now become a Catholic, and several of the Catholics were in favour at court. The Catholic peers, who still held the privilege of voting in parliament, invariably opposed the designs of the plotters, and therefore they determined to get rid of these steady supporters of the throne. Having worked the people up to a pitch of infuriate madness by the means of Oates's sham discoveries, they introduced a bill into parliament for the purpose of excluding the duke of York from the throne, and the Catholics from sitting in parliament, and holding any office, civil or military, by the help of a test or oath, though, at the same time, they were blackening the characters of the unfortunate victims, by circulating that they could get dispensed from their oaths by the pope. After several attempts, in both houses, the enemies of the Catholics succeeded in getting a bill passed, by which it was enacted that every person, before he could vote in either house, or take any office under the crown of England, should audibly repeat and subscribe to a declaration, that they did not believe in the real presence of the Eucharist, and that the invocation of the Virgin Mary aad other saints, as practised in the church of Rome, was superstitious and idolatrous. On the 30th of November, 1678, the king gave his consent to the bill, and from that time to this, Catholics have been excluded from the exercise of their civil rights. THE CALENDAR. For's Calendar OF PROTESTANT SAINTS AND MARTYRS. FEBRUARY. Year. Day. 1413 3 John Claydon, Martyr. 4 Richard Turmin, Martyr. 1416 5 Zisca, a Confessor. 1430 7 Richard Hoveden, Martyr. 1436 10 Thomas Rhedon, Martyr. 23 John Hooper, Bishop, Martyr. 1555 25 Rowland Taylor, Doctor, Mart. 28 Trunchfield's Wife, Martyr. FOX NOX has collected for this month, in his Calendar of Saints, as prime a batch of the veriest wretches that ever disgraced Christian society, as could be selected from the records of the Old Bailey, in the worst times of immorality and depravity.. 1. William Thorp, Priest, Confessor. This man held certain Wickliffian and Anabaptistical opinions, for which, Fox says, he was summoned before the then archbishop of Canterbury, and lord Chancellor under Henry the fourth. Fox calls him valiant warrior under the triumphant banner of Christ," &c. and gives a long detail of Thorp's behaviour, examination, and answers before the archbishop, "penned," the martyrologist says, "by Thorp himself, but copied out and corrected by master William Tyndall." Upon what authority this statement is made we are not told, therefore we may set it down as an unauthorised tale entitled to no credit. We are the more warranted in this decision by the testimony of Fox himself, who, though he could vouch for the genuineness of Thorp's writing, could not trace the end of his confessor. He says, "What was the end of this good man and blessed servant of God, William Thorp, I find as yet in no story specified." How then, we may ask, came his narrative to be so carefully preserved and handed down to master William Tyndall? Of the opinions of this "good man and blessed servant of God" (what blasphemy!) we need say but little. Fox states that he refused to swear by the bible, because "a book is nothing else but a thing coupled together by divers creatures; (what say ye to this, biblemongers?) and to swear. by any creature, both God's law and man's law is against it." With regard to tithes, he said that none at all are due, by God's law, to priests and ministers. We should be glad to learn what the Protestant clergy as by law established think of this Foxian saint-this "valiant warrior under the triumphant banner of Christ"? Were he living now and active in promoting this latter doctrine, we have no doubt but the parson-justices would be as anxious to have him punished, as they were to gibbet Catholic priests in queen Elizabeth's time. 2. Purification of our Lady. Heaven preserve us! how came Fox to set this day apart for the invocation of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, when it is now made a test of qualification, of orthodox Protestantism, to swear that to invoke our blessed Lady is damnable idolatry?!!!!! Either John Fox or the modern disciples of Protestantism are in the wrong, for both of them cannot be right. If it be idolatry to invoke the Virgin Mary, Fox must have been an idolater to celebrate her purification, and his calendar is good for nought. But we shall leave the Protestant to get out of this dilemma. 3. John Claydon, Martyr. This fellow was a currier of leather, infected with the Wickliffian disorders. Fox says, "that Claydon the currier was made a burnt offering unto the Lord, anno 1415;" let us now see what sort of " a burnt offering" this Protestant martyr was. Walsingham, speaking of Oldcastle's conspiracy in the second year of the reign of Henry the fifth, after noticing the caption of Oldcastle, says, a little after was there taken an old Lollard, called William Claydon, who, upon confidence of his sect, was grown so mad, as to presume, he being a layman, to give holy orders to his son, and to make him priest; and caused him to celebrate mass in his house upon the day of his mother rising from child bed, for which he being apprehended, examined, and lawfully convicted of heresy, he was burned in London. From this account it is clear that Fox's "burnt offering sacrifice" was no Protestant, seeing that he held the doctrine of the mass, which Protestants condemn as superstitious and idolatrous. See more of this rebel martyr in our second volume, page 57. 4. Richard Turmin, Martyr. He was a Wickliffian baker, and one of sir John Oldcastle's soldiers in St. Giles's field. Fox puts him down as a martyr in his calendar, but in his Acts and Monuments he says, "Albeit in the Register I find no sentence of condemnation given against Turmin, neither yet in the story of St. Alban's any mention of his burning; yet certain it is, that he was accused to the bishop, and no doubt was in their hands and bands. What afterwards was done to him I refer ye to the authors, and the judgment I leave free to the reader." Here we see the deep regard paid by Fox to truth. He first sets this rebellious heretic down in his calendar as an actual martyr, but in the body of the work he confesses his inability to discover whether he was a martyr or not! And then to make a shew of candour, he refers the reader to nameless authors he could not find himself, and is content to let judgment be given freely upon an uncertainty. 5. Zisca, a Confessor, This confessor in the cause of Protestantism, as Fox would have us believe, was a notorious and infamous outlaw and rebel in Bohemia against his lawful sovereign, whom he brought to destruction with the greater part of his realm. Zisca was imbued with the doctrines of John Huss, who received them from Wickliffe, and began his rebellion by murdering openly the mayor of Prague and other senators, and then breaking violently into the palace, he so alarmed the sick king, Wenceslaus, that he presently fell into a dead palsy, according to the testimony of Dubravius, bishop of Olmutz, which soon ended his life. This awful circumstance encouraged Fox's confessor to more cruel and outrageous, acts against the widowed queen, and against the emperor Sigismund, brother in law of the deceased king. He also commenced a bloody and sanguinary slaughter of the priests and religious, scarcely equalled in the most barbarous times, and called himself in his ordinary |