a shroud by a protestant woman, to wrap his happy quarters in; whom, it seems, God did send to us on purpose to do this last office unto his servant, for to us all she was a stranger, and lives twelve miles from the town. And when she heard us mourn that not any of us durst appear, she, with a courage went and saw his quarters put into the shroud, and buried them near to the gallows, although she suffered many affronts from the ungodly multitude; who, from ten o'clock in the morning, till four in the afternoon, stayed on the hill, and sported themselves at football with his head, and put sticks in his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and then they buried it near to the body, for they durst not set it upon their gate, because the last before, which was long since martyred amongst them, "Mr. John Cornelius Mohun, anno domini, 1594," they set up his head upon their town gate, and presently there ensued a plague, which cost most of them their lives; so that still they fear, yet will not amend; God hold his merciful hand over them, or else I fear a severe judgment will befal them for this their last inhuman cruelty. I wish the contrary, and heartily pray that we may all partake of the prayers and sufferings of this our glorious martyr, whose magnanimity and patience were to me both admirable and profitable. And well did one minister say, who was present at his death, amongst forty more of his coat, that if many such men should die, and be suffered to speak as he did, they should soon shut up their books. This is credible, although for some respects the man is not named. Sir, this briefly is what I conceived myself obliged to signify unto you concerning this subject, not doubting but you will conceive the same comfort in reading it, as I did in writing the same unto you, who am, sir, &c.

E. WILLOUGHBY.'

This same account was not long after published in print by Chifletius, in his Palma Cleri Anglicani, and the substance of it is found in the Douay diary, 1642. Mr. Green suffered at Dorchester, on Friday, the 19th of August, 1642, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.

THOMAS BULLAKER, PRIEST, O. S. F.*

THOMAS BULLAKER, called in religion, father John Baptist, was born at Chichester, in Sussex, about the year 1604, of pious and catholic parents. His father was a noted physician, who brought up his son in the fear of God, and gave him a liberal education. At the age of eighteen he went over to the college of St. Omer's under the care of the fathers of the society; and from thence, after a short stay, he was, with divers others, sent to the English seminary of Valladolid, in Spain. He had not been long here before he found a call to the order of St. Francis, which grew daily stronger upon him; but then how to put this call into execution he knew not, being quite a stranger to the religious of

From F. Angelus, a S. Francisco, in his Certamen Seraphicum, printed anno, 1649. p. 31, &c.

that order, (as they also were to him,) and not so much as knowing the language of the country, and withal, apprehending an opposition from the superiors of his college, were they to know any thing of his inclinations. In this perplexity he had recourse to God, praying night and day, with many tears, and using divers mortifications, such as hairshirts, disciplines, lying on the ground, &c., till, at length, he took courage, and communicated the affair to his confessor, the reverend father Baker, S. J., and he, after examining his vocation, and putting him into a spiritual exercise of ten days, and finding him still more ardently desiring to embrace the austerity, poverty, and humility of the Franciscan institute, approved of his call, and joined with the rector of the college in petitioning for his admission in the celebrated convent of the Spanish recollects at Abrojo, at six miles distance from Valladolid. The petition was granted, to the great satisfaction of young Mr. Bullaker, now about nineteen years of age, who, upon the receiving of the news, broke out into those words of the royal prophet, Lætatus sum in his quæ dicta sunt mihi, in domum domini ibimus, Psal. cxxi.

He passed his noviceship, and made his religious profession in the convent of Abrojo, and then was sent by his superiors to another convent of the order, to study philosophy; and from thence to Valladolid to study divinity, which he began there, but finished at Segobia. And now being made priest, the Spanish province of the recollects of the immaculate conception, (in which he was professed,) being about to send missioners to labour in the West Indies, he petitioned to be of the number, but his provincial would not consent to that proposal, but told him his own native country, England, had a better title to his labours, and stood as much in need of them, as the Indies could do. Father Bullaker acquiesced, and willingly embraced the will of God, notified to him by his superior, and having received proper license and mission, and prepared himself by an extraordinary recollection and retreat of ten days, he set out upon his journey, which he made on foot, (in a secular habit, which he had begged,) through a great part of Spain and France, in the midst of many dangers and difficulties, till he came to Bordeaux. Here he took shipping in an English vessel, and landed safe at Plymouth.

He was scarce come to his inn, when he was apprehended upon the information of the master of the ship, and brought before the mayor of Plymouth; and after examination, committed to a filthy jail in that town, where he suffered all kinds of extremities for eight days, having no other bed but the bare ground, it being the winter season, and very severe. From Plymouth he was sent to the county jail at Exeter, where he was put amongst the felons, and not much better accommodated than he had been at Plymouth; only he received some small charities, from the few catholics that were in that neighbourhood. In this prison he remained till the lenten assizes, when he was brought to the bar, in order to be tried; but no sufficient evidence appearing against him, his trial was put off. In the mean time, some friends having interested themselves in his favour at court, he was sent for up to London, and discharged. But what he had suffered in his impri

sonment brought a violent fever upon him; from which he recovered indeed, yet so that he was never after a healthy man to his dying day.

Being recovered, he was sent by his superior into the country, where he laboured with great zeal and fruit, for about eleven years, till hearing of the martyrdom of Mr. Ward, he was inflamed with a vehement desire of glorifying his master by the like death; which desire of his, was increased by the news of the condemnation of the seven priests in the latter end of the same year. Upon this, he quits his residence in the country, and with the leave of his superior, dedicates himself to the laborious employment of assisting the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned in London; in hopes of more readily meeting with martyrdom there he takes a lodging for this purpose in the city, which was soon after visited by the pursuivants, coming to search for a priest. What does he do upon this occasion? Instead of hiding himself, he goes up to the men, and boldly asks them, Am I the priest you search for? They answer, no. Why, says he, there is no other here. However, they said no more to him, but went their way; and though they returned again upon the same errand the next day, and found his chamber open, where he was sitting at dinner, in their sight, and his breviary was lying hard by on a table; yet they took no notice of him, nor so much as offered to come within his room; which gave him no small uneasinsss; but his time was not yet come. What follows with regard to his apprehension, examinations, and trial, is an abstract of a manuscript relation, written by himself, at the request of a reverend priest, a little before his death, published in the Certamen Seraphicum, p. 47, &c.

On Sunday, being the 11th of September, 1642, it pleased Almighty God to assuage my sorrows, by giving me good hopes that he had vouchsafed at length to hear my unworthy prayers, and would speedily grant my petition. For this morning. in my devotions, immediately before mass, having repeated again my former prayer, with as much earnestness as I could, that God in his infinite goodness would grant me, though most unworthy, the favour of laying down my life for his sake; and having said, as usual, the litanies of the blessed virgin, and begun mass; when I was come to the hymn, Gloria in excelsis, the apostate Wadsworth, coming into the room, seized me at the altar. I offered to take off my vestments; but he opposed it, saying he would have me, vested as I was, before the sheriff of London. I urged the inconveniences that might fellow to himself as well as to me, from the mob, if he conducted me through the streets in that dress. Upon this remonstrance, he consented that I should pull off my vestments, which he immediately seized, together with the books, beads, pictures, &c., and my silver oil box; and then carried me, together with the lady of the house, before the sheriff.

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The sheriff asked me, if I was a priest? I told him, I was. Then, said he, how durst you presume to return into England, in contempt of the laws, which prohibit priests returning hither, under the severest penalties? I answered, because I was convinced that those laws were unjust, and therefore not to be regarded. I added, that I believed if they went on, as they had begun, they would soon make it high treason

to believe in Christ; for it appeared how little regard they had to him, whose image on the cross of Cheapside they had lately so grossly abused. Some of the standers-by asked me, where Christ had commanded in the scriptures the making of his image? I answered, that though this was not expressly commanded in scripture; yet it was agreeable to the law of nature, to which the divine law is no way opposite, to testify our love to a person by the regard we have to his picture or image; and thus both right, reason, and experience show, that the affront offered to the king's image, is to be looked upon as done to himself, and is punished as such. What then must be thought of the affronts you have lately offered to the image of Jesus Christ, the king of kings? Then the sheriff asked me, for what intent I had returned to England? I answered, to bring back my country to the fold of Christ, from which it was gone astray: that I was sent hither to this end. He asked me, who sent me? I answered, I was sent by those who had an authority to do it, delegated to them by the pope. Then the sheriff left me, and I was carried out by a back door into another street, by reason of the great concourse of the mob before the house, and conducted to the New Prison.

On Tuesday morning, I was carried to Westminster, to be examined before a committee of parliament, appointed for that purpose. When I came thither, Wadsworth brought in the vestments and other ornaments which he had taken, and laid them upon the table before the committee; one of them said, they were but mean they are too good, said I, for those that now have them. The chairman gravely said, as mean as they are, they can serve for an idolatrous worship as well as the best. What idolatrous worship, sir? said I. Why, said he, is it not idolatry to worship bread for God? I replied, we worship not the bread and wine for God, in the tremendous mysteries; but we worship Jesus Christ under the species of bread and wine, as the church of God has always done from the days of the apostles.

Whilst this controversy was in agitation, one of the company in looking over and examining the vestments, uncovered the altarstone, and viewing the crosses upon it, cried out, that he had there discovered the number of the beast. I could scarce forbear laughing at his ignorance: but going up to him, I said, pray, sir, since you are so well acquainted with the beast, be pleased to tell me what is his name. Then the chairman asked me, how I durst presume to disobey the laws of my country? I answered with the apostles, Acts iv.-Judge you, if it be just in the sight of God, to obey you rather than God. Sir William Cawley, formerly my school-fellow, said, You know, Mr. Bullaker, it is written, Fear God, and honour the king. I know it, said I, and I also know that the parliament which made it treason to be a priest, did, also, by law, establish the government of the church by bishops, the common prayer, and ceremonies; all which in this present parliament you oppose. True, said he, but why may we not amend what is ill ordered before? This, said I, is what you attempt; but assure yourself, that a parliament will come, and that the very next parliament that shall sit, in which that religion which you now pretend to establish, (viz: presbytery, will be rejected and

thrown out. He said, I should never see that day. I know, said I, that the time of my dissolution is at hand, but what I have foretold will certainly happen." "It did so for after the rump was dissolved there was no legal parliament till the restoration, when all their religious ordinances were annulled; this prediction was published in print in the Certamen Seraphicum, p. 51, anno 1649, i. e. eleven years before the event."

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Upon this they cried out, I was a traitor, and that all their present troubles were owing to the practices of me, and such as me. I would to God! said I, there were not in this kingdom another kind of traitors, from whom the nation has reason to fear far more real and greater dangers for all your pretences of popish plots, I defy you to produce any legal proof of any one single treasonable attempt of any catholic, from the beginning of this parliament, to this present day. Then they asked how long I had been a priest? and how many years I had been in England? I answered, that subducting out of my age, (which was about thirty-eight,) twenty-four years I had been priest all the rest; and had been about twelve years in England. They asked, How many priests there were of our order in the kingdom? I told them, though I was so free in confessing what related to myself, they were mistaken, if they imagined I would betray my brethren, or bring them into danger; and therefore I should answer nothing upon that head. Here, Wadsworth addressed himself to the committee, said, this man is so obstinate and resolute in his way, that he is not afraid to profess, that if you send him out of the nation by one port, he will return by another; which though they interpreted to be a contempt, I there plainly affirmed. They asked me in fine, amongst many other things, whether the bishop of Chalcedon had given orders whilst he was here in England? I told them no: in conclusion, they sent my name, and my examination, which they had taken down in writing, to the lord chief justice, and sent me to Newgate, in order for my trial and execution.

When I was brought to the court to be tried, I first made the sign of the cross upon my forehead, mouth, and breast, saying aloud, Per signum crucis de inimicis nostris libera nos deus noster; and then humbly begged the blessing of the most sacred trinity. The clerk of the sessions ordered me to hold up my hand, and my indictment being read, he asked if I was guilty, or not guilty. I answered, if by guilty you mean a criminal, as if by taking orders I was guilty of any crime or fault, I am not guilty: but a priest I am, and that I will never deny. Then, said they, thou art a traitor. Had the kingdom, said I, no other kind of traitors, it would be in a far better condition, than it is at present. At these words the court was silent for a while, and then they cried out, I was a seducer. Now, said I, you give me occasion to rejoice, because you treat me with the same title as the Jews did my Saviour, whom they called a seducer. I added, that he that first taught the law of Christ to the English nation, (viz: St. Augustine,) was a priest like me, and was in like manner sent hither by the pope, viz: St. Gregory the great.

They asked again if I were guilty or not guilty? I answered, VOL 11.

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