Heroic Catholic Women of England, 1586-1642
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Heroic Catholic Women of England, 1586-1642 by Anne Barbeau Gardiner Execution at Tyburn by William Hogarth n the pages of Bishop Richard Challoner’s return to the country.”2 For a woman to aid such a “traitor” Memoirs of Missionary Priests,1 we find was a felony, also a capital crime. the stories of numerous women who were Challoner records little about some of these women, but outstanding for their heroic witness to the enough to lift the heart and animate the soul. For example, I Catholic faith. Some of them were mothers he tells of the mother of the priest John Body, executed at who gave encouragement to their priest-sons when these Andover on November 2, 1583. This mother, hearing of came to be executed for the faith. Other women gave shel- her son’s martyrdom “made a great feast upon that occa- ter to hunted priests or provided a place where Mass could sion,” inviting her neighbors over to celebrate as if it had be offered, and for these splendid acts of charity were been his wedding. With the like supernatural joy, the moth- stripped of their possessions and cast into filthy prisons er of William Hartley stood faithfully by her son when he like criminals. Yet others gave priests encouragement by was put to death at Tyburn, the Calvary of England, on visiting them in prison or by accompanying them during October 5th, 1588. An eyewitness re- their martyrdom. A few women were themselves executed, ported that she was “looking on” when but most who were arrested suffered the slower martyrdom he was hanged and quartered, “rejoic- of imprisonment for life. The reason Catholic priests were ing exceedingly that she had brought hunted down was that, as Dom Bede Camm put it, “In forth a son to glorify God by such a 1585 the wicked Queen who had usurped the Throne of death.” Tyburn Tree stood at the junc- these Kingdoms caused a law to be passed by her servile tion of three main roads, which today Parliament which made it high treason for a British subject are named Edgware, Oxford Street, to be ordained abroad (it was impossible in England) and Bishop Challoner and Bayswater. In 1571, a triangular 36 Fall 2007 Heroic Catholic Women of England, 1586-1642 gallows stood at that spot facing in three directions, able to for martyrdom, especially when she saw the priest she hang at least twenty-four persons at once. had assisted or her husband condemned to die and herself All we know about another brave Catholic woman relegated to prison. Yet perpetual imprisonment in a filthy is that when the priest Richard Leigh and several other jail was the usual way that undaunted Catholic laymen and Catholics were martyred at Tyburn on August 30, 1588, women suffered in those years. When Blessed Thomas she exhorted them to constancy and then, forcing her way Atkinson entered York prison in 1616 before being put toward them through the crowd, knelt and asked their to death, he found there eighty Catholics who had been blessing. She was immediately arrested. Similarly, when condemned for their religion to the loss of all their goods the priests Robert Dalby and John and life imprisonment. Amias suffered at York on March She was “looking on” when At the trial of the priest Roger 16, 1589, yet another stalwart lady he was hanged and quartered, Diconson, who was hanged and pushed her way through the crowd quartered at Winchester on July 7, and, arriving at the spot where “rejoicing exceedingly that she 1591, “seven maiden gentlewomen, their bodies were being cut apart, had brought forth a son to glorify of good families” were condemned “fell down upon her knees” with God by such a death.” with him for having received him “her hands joined.” The angry mob “into their houses to say Mass for shouted “an idolatress!” and she them.” But the judge, after he had was driven away, perhaps to prison. What sentenced these seven ladies to death, gave she was witnessing on her knees was the them a reprieve and ordered them back to penalty for high treason then meted out prison. At this the women “all burst into to Catholic priests for their priesthood, a tears” and asked that “they might die with penalty that involved several steps: first the their ghostly father and pastor,” for they priest was drawn on a hurdle to the gal- were sure that God, “who had given them lows and hanged by the neck, but cut down the grace to do what they had done,” would alive; next his bowels were taken out and enable them to suffer death “for the holy burned in his sight; then his heart was cut Catholic Faith.” out, presented to the people as “the heart Another woman likewise condemned of a traitor,” and thrown in a fire; finally he to die but reprieved, was Alice, the wife of was beheaded and his body divided into Swithun Wells. On November 7, 1591, Saint four parts, which were boiled and placed in Edmund Gennings, Saint Polidore Plasden, gibbets on the gates of the city. and Saint Eustace White were celebrat- Catholic women risked being arrested ing Mass for a number of Catholics in her not only for assisting a priest in any way, Martyr being drawn and quartered. house. The priest-catchers broke down the but also for taking up relics at his execution. door and arrested everyone present. The Even so, women still managed to take up first-class relics. three priests were tried and condemned for high treason, When the priest Saint Edmund Gennings and his assistant, while the rest were found guilty of felony. But just when the layman Saint Swithun Wells were put to death in front she was supposed to be executed, Alice Wells was sent of Wells’s house (these two are among the 40 martyrs of back to prison by the sheriff, a reprieve that might have England and Wales who were canonized in 19703), “a given “great joy to another” but to her was a great afflic- devout woman” managed to get possession of Genning’s tion. She “lamented to see herself left behind, and not thumb when he was quartered. She later left England and suffered to bear her husband and ghostly father company became a nun. in so glorious a death.” Indeed she endured “a longer A widow in Oxford was arrested for harboring the and more lingering martyrdom in prison,” for she lived priests Blessed George Nichols and Blessed Richard a “close prisoner” for another decade in Newgate, dying Yaxley (two of the 85 martyrs beatified by Pope John Paul only in 1602. II in 19874). When these two priests were condemned and Similarly, two Catholic women Ann Tesse and Bridget sentenced to be hanged and quartered on July 5, 1589, Maskew were condemned in 1596 to be burned alive for she too was condemned, but her sentence was to lose all persuading someone to be reconciled to the Church of her goods and be imprisoned for the rest of her life. In Rome. They were reprieved, but remained in prison for response, the “good widow” expressed “joy, only regret- seven years until the death of Queen Elizabeth. Similarly, a ting that she was not to die with her ghostly fathers.” It widow named Eleanor Hunt was imprisoned in York Castle was not unusual for a Catholic woman to express a desire in 1599 for having given shelter to the priest Christopher Fall 2007 37 Heroic Catholic Women of England, 1586-1642 Wharton, whom she hardly knew before he was arrested in August 30, 1588. Her story is closely entwined with that her house. Condemned to death for felony, she refused to of the priest she rescued, Richard Watson. Unable to save her life by going to a Protestant service, but was later endure his sufferings in Bridewell prison, Father Watson reprieved and sent to prison for life. had consented to go a single time to a Protestant church At times, Catholic women might offer encouragement and for this compliance he was set at liberty. However, he where it was not needed, as in the case of Blessed Robert could not endure the “torments of his mind” and went to Grissold, an uneducated servant and a man so timorous confession to an imprisoned priest. He then returned to the by nature that he had Protestant church and once fainted when his declared publicly that thumb was pierced he had done wrong in by an awl. Yet he was going there. For this he “bold” in his faith, and was arrested again, put though he had several in a dungeon, and bar- opportunities to escape raged continually with after being arrested threats and promises to in the company of the make him conform to priest Blessed John the state religion, “at Sugar, he chose to stay least outwardly.” Other and suffer death with Catholics were afraid this holy man a year to come near him, but later, on July 16, 1604. The Forty Martyr-Saints of England and Wales by Daphne Pollen Margaret Ward got In prison, a Catholic permission to bring him woman mourned his fate, but Gris- When Blessed Thomas Atkinson provisions from time to time. After sold told her not to come in tears entered York prison in 1616 before a while, Father Watson told her “into the bridegroom’s chamber,” at he might escape if he had a long which a wiser Catholic woman ex- being put to death, he found there enough cord.