The Catholic World, Vol. 16, October 1872-March 1873Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 16, October 1872-March 1873
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
We see, therefore, by this comprehensive penal code that every office
under the crown was reserved as a bribe to recreant Catholics; that
private tutors were commanded to teach nothing but the new heresy in
Catholic families, while those who objected to such method of instruction
could neither send their children abroad nor contribute to the support of
those already there. All priests were obliged to take the oath of
supremacy and observe the _Book of Common Prayer_; such as did not were to
be banished, and if they returned were to be executed forthwith. No priest
could, of course, be ordained at home, and if ordained abroad he was to be
hanged whenever caught, without delay. If one of the laity attended Mass
or wore the image of his crucified Redeemer, he was to be imprisoned for
life; if he did not attend Protestant service, he was to be fined
enormously; if he had no money to pay the fine, he might be banished for
ever from his home and country, and if he endeavored to conceal himself at
home his career was to be ended by the hangman.
Nor must it to be supposed that these sanguinary statutes, affecting the
rights and liberties of at least one‐half of the population, were nothing
but the splenetic fits of a jealous and tyrannical bigot or mere idle
threats to frighten a half‐civilized horde. On the contrary, we have
abundant facts to prove that they were thoroughly and cruelly enforced,
and that the sufferers were principally the better class of the community.
In 1573, the Rev. Thomas Woodhouse was drawn, half‐hanged, and then
quartered alive in the usual way at Tyburn, for having denied the queen’s
supremacy. Two years later, Father Cuthbert Mayne was executed with
similar barbarity in Cornwall for having in his possession a copy of a
Jubilee and for saying Mass in the house of a Mr. Teagian; the latter,
with fifteen others, for being present on the occasion, was imprisoned for
life. In 1577, Mr. Jenks was tried and convicted at Oxford for exposing
some Catholic books for sale, and about this time we are informed the
prisons were so full of “recusants” that a pestilence broke out and large
numbers of the inmates perished. Among the sufferers in 1578 we find the
names of Father Nelson and a Mr. Sherwood, who were hanged and quartered
solely for being recusants. In 1582, Fathers Campion (the celebrated
Jesuit missionary), Sherwin, and Briant, after the mockery of a trial,
were executed in London, and in May of the year following no less than
seven other priests suffered death at Tyburn. Thus nearly every year
supplied its quota to the martyrology of the church in England, not to
speak of the nameless thousands who died in confinement by the quick but
silent process of torture and pestilence, or abroad, broken‐hearted and
neglected. During the fourteen years succeeding the dispersion of the
Spanish Armada, when fanaticism was rampant and bigotry held full sway in
the councils of Elizabeth, sixty‐one clergymen, forty‐seven laymen, and
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