Excerpts from Church History, by John Laux, M.A. (TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.: Rockford, 1989)
"On Mary's death (1558), Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was proclaimed Queen. At her coronation she took the oath to
uphold the Catholic faith. But her ministers, with the clever but unscrupulous Cecil at their head, had little difficulty in persuading her "to
put down a religion which prclaimed her a bastard, and to support the reformed doctrine, which alone could give stability to the throne".
With a majority of only three votes, her first Parliament (1559) passed an Act of Supremacy, which declared the Queen supreme governor in
spiritual as well as in temporal matters. The Act of Uniformity prescribed the use of the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, and ordered the
attendance of the laity at the Protestant service. The altars were again destroyed, and the Mass proscribed. In 1563 the Forty-two Articles
of Edward VI were cut down to Thirty-nine Articles and made the official creed of the Church. This time the bishops were not so subservient
as in the time of Henry VIII. They realized that they had to do with heresy, and refused to make any compromise. Of the sixteen Catholic
bishops all except one steadfastly refused to submit. Two died in exile, one died in his home, the other twelve were imprisoned until death.
They were replaced by invalidly consecrated Calvinistic laymen. Of the Catholic clergy one thousand resigned or were forcibly deprived of
their parishes. Many priests conducted the Protestant service and said Mass afterwards for the faithful. This went on until Pope Pius V
positively forbade Catholics to attend the heretical services in England. "In the years of 1560-1570," says Clayton, "England was lost to
the faith. Lack of clergy, lack of guidance, compromise with the new order, help to explain the loss. Rome and Philip of Spain refrained from
any show of hostility to Elizabeth, trusting to time to bring reconciliation. Elizabeth played withthem till the Catholic cause in England was
lost." In 1570 Pope Pius V, against the advice of the Emperor Ferdinand and Philip of Spain, excommunicated and deposed Elizabeth.
The English Parliament retaliated by making it high treason to declare the Queen a heretic, or to receive any Bull from Rome. A violent
persecution of the Catholics set in, and great numbers of the clergy were fined, imprisoned, or put to death. The real era of persecution,
however, began in 1581, when Parliament passed an Act making it high treason to return to the old religion, and felony to say or hear Mass,
to go to confession, or to harbor a priest. It was in this year that the heroic Jesuit Blessed Edmund Campion was put to death." (p 452-453)
"The total number of men and women, priests, monks, etc., who suffered death in England for the Catholic faith from 1535 to 1681 is over
six hundred, several hundred of whom have been beatified." (p 454)
"The political conquest of Ireland, begun in the 12th century by Henry II, was completed by Elizabeth, who spent vast sums of money in
the enterprise. The Irish were more successful in their resistance when England tried to conquer them spiritually also. In 1536 a so-called
Irish Parliament, composed entirely of Anglo-Irish nobles, accepted the religious supremacy of Henry VIII; but practically the whole
nation, with the exception of Archbishop Brown of Dublin, an apostate Augustinian friar, who owed his elevation to Henry VIII, remained
faithful to the Pope. For the next six years a relentless war was raged on the Catholic chiefs, and one after the other submitted to the King
and renounced the authority of the Pope. A Parliament was again summoned in Dublin, in which Irish and Anglo-Irish sat side by side, and
Henry was proclaimed King of Ireland (1542). The lay leaders had proved themselves cowards; the bishops, however, with three or four
exceptions, were faithful to their oaths and refused to accept the royal supremacy. War was declared upon the property of the Church.
Five hundred and forty abbeys, priories, and other religious houses were seized, and the monks were either put to death or dispersed. Many
of the famous shrines were plundered and their priceless relics destroyed. With the sacrilegious spoils Henry enriched his courtiers and
the nobles, not forgetting himself. Still all these measures did not produce the desired effect on the feelings of the people; it anything, they
were more loyal to Rome than ever. Edward VI made a vain attempt to indroduce heretical doctrines into Ireland and to force the Book of
Common Prayer upon the people in place of the Mass. Elizabeth determined to pursue the same policy in Ireland as she was pursuing in
England. But all her measures failed to make Ireland Protestant. Then she tried persecution against the bishops and the clergy. Six
archbishops and bishops were arrested and put to death after terrible torture; many other prelates were obliged to escape to the
Continent. "Hundreds of the clergy, both secular and regular, underwent martyrdom for the faith, but, notwithstanding the persecution,
priests were still found to minister to the spiritual wants of the people, the Franciscans and the Dominicans being especially active. In
order to keep up the supply of priests many Irish seminaries were established on the Continent, at this time and at a later period, at Paris,
Bordeaux, Nantes, Douai, Antwerp, Lisbon, Salamanca, Seville and Rome". Since they could not "convert" the Irish, the English monarchs
resolved to exterminate them little by little. Elizabeth confiscated one hundred thousand acres of land in Ulster, and drove out the
Catholics to make way for Scotch and English planters. James I extended the Protestant colonization by confiscating four hundred thousand
acres more, and ordered all the Irish priests to leave Ireland under pain of death. Every effort made subsequently by the Irish people to win
their rights was mercilessly put down, and the yoke that rested upon them made heavier. After the rising in 1690 the English set themselves
deliberately to enslave three-fourths of the inhabitants of Ireland. Every Catholic was deprived of even a semblance of civil and religious
rights. "These Penal Laws were made to put an end to the Catholic religion, and for a long time they were strictly enforced; but, instead of
succeeding in their object, they succeeded only in impoverishing the Protestant landowners and the country generally, and in giving
Catholicity a stronger hold than it ever had before on the great body of the people in Ireland".... About 260 persons died for the faith in
Ireland between 1537 and 1719; of these the names of 4 archbishops, 11 bishops, 37 priests, 35 monks, 49 laymen and 6 lay women have
been presented to the Pope for beatification." (p 455-456)
The Martyrdom of the Ven. Robert Southwell
Robert Southwell, the English poet, whose Burning Babe, Mary Magdalen's Tears, and Triumphs Over Death are known to
every student of English literature, was born in Norfolk in 1561. He studied at Douai, Paris, Rome and Tournai. In 1578 he joined the
Jesuits at Rome. Ordained priest in 1584, he accompanied Father Henry Garnett to England in 1586. For six years he labored with great
zeal and marked success among the scattered and persecuted Catholics. In 1592 he was betrayed by a woman into the hands of that
unspeakable villain Richard Topcliffe, the confidant of Queen Elizabeth. For weeks Topcliffe tortured him most inhumanly. Transferred to
the Gatehouse, he was treated so abominably that his father presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth begging that his son might either be
executed or treated as a gentleman. Southwell was then lodged in the Tower, but he was not brought to trial till the beginning of 1595.
His condemnation was a foregone conclusion. He was hanged at Tyburn on March 3, 1595. On March 4 Father Garnett wrote an account
of his martyrdom to the General of the Society of Jesus in Rome, from which the following extract is taken:
'The Peace of Christ Jesus. At length I have a most beautiful flower to offer to your paternity from your garden, a most sweet fruit from your
tree, an admirable treasure from your treasury, 'silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times.' It is Christ's unconquered
soldier, most faithful disciple, most valiant martyr, Robert Southwell, formerly my dearest companion and brother, now my lord, patron, and
king, reigning with Christ. He had been kept for nearly three years in closer custody than anyone ever was, so that no Catholic ever saw him
or spoke to him. He was often tortured and that in a more cruel manner than even this barbarity is accustomed to inflict. He publicly
declared that he had been tortured ten times, and that with torments worse than the rack or than death itself. 'Thus deprived of all human aid,
at length they brought him forth that it might be clear to all how far the divine assistance exceeds all human help. For all this long time he
could neither say Mass, nor go to the Sacrament of Penance, nor speak with anyone, nor receive consolation from any; yet he went to
judgment and to execution with so calm and tranquil a mind that you would have said that he came from the midst of a monastery of
religious men, and that he was passing of his own free will from the breasts of his mother to the sweetest of delights. ... Having been
drawn, to the cart, he made the sign of the cross as well as he could (for his hands were bound) and began his speech... As the cart was
driven away he signed himself, saying 'Into Thy hands O Lord' Whilst hanging from the gallows he often made the sign of the cross (for
the rope was badly placed on his neck) until the hangman pulled his legs (which is an unusual act of humanity with us) and then he closed
his eyes which till then were open. An officer often tried to cut the rope but was prevented by Lord Mountjoy and by all the people, who
three times cried out: 'Leave him, leave him.' The hangman took him down from the gallows with much reverence and, with his attendants,
carried him in his arms to the place of his disembowelling. Others they usually drag along the ground in a very inhuman way. One of the
pursuivants declared that he had never seen a man die more piously, and some of the heretics wished that their souls might be with his..."
(The Triumphs Over Death by the Ven. Robert Southwell, Appendix II, ed J.W.Trotman, p 99-104)
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Catholic Persecution in England