ANOTHER GUNTER

Because of their relationship to and support of St David Lewis, the Gunters of Abergavenny feature prominently on this Blog Site. William Gunter was born in Raglan and I cannot say for certain if he was an ancestor of our Abergavenny Gunters. However, William Gunter is another Gunter who, like Thomas Gunter and his family, was willing to face hardship and even death for his Catholic Faith.

The home of Thomas Gunter, Abergavenny

On 29th September 1568 Cardinal William Allen set up the English Collage at Douai, France.  The college would eventually number 158 martyrs among its students.  The first was Cuthbert Mayne in 1577 and the last was Thomas Thwing in 1680.

Cardinal William Allen

William Gunter chose to travel to the English College to study for the priesthood. He was ordained in March 1587.  Within months of his ordination William was back in England working among the beleaguered Catholics.  

Life for Catholics in Elizabethan England was difficult, to say the least, but the failed invasion of the Spanish Armada in 1588 made the situation far worse.  The authorities were determined to show any foolhardy Catholic the awful fate that would befall them should they attempt a plot or uprising.  To this end, new gallows were hastily erected in different locations around London. Many Catholics were arrested and imprisoned by the authorities.  Fr Gunter was among them.  The priest admitted that he had reconciled others to the Catholic Faith and declared that he would continue to do so if he could.  Thus Fr Gunter sealed his own fate and he was condemned to death without a trial by jury. 

The Tyburn Tree

On 28th August 1588, 21 priests were martyred.  Queen Elizabeth I had shown a modicum of mercy. Fr Gunter would not suffer the sentence of being hanged, drawn and quartered.  He would just be hanged!  It is said that on hearing this, the priest replied that it was fitting because he was not worthy to suffer as much as his brethren.  He was taken to Shoreditch where the sentence was carried out.

The sacrifice of William Gunter was recognised in 1986 when, on 10th November, Pope John Paul II issued a decree of martyrdom declaring Fr Gunter Venerable.  The next step to canonisation came on 22nd November 1987 when Pope John Paul II declared Fr William Gunter Blessed.

There you have it.  Another brave and faithful Gunter and another Welsh Martyr.  Blessed William Gunter, ora pro nobis. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE ROME (Part 1)

In Penal Times, when Catholicism was outlawed and seminaries closed, it was the intention of the Establishment that Catholicism would die out in this country. They reasoned that if there were no priests to celebrate holy Mass, to preach, and teach the faith, then it would be completely eradicated. Alas, the authorities reckoned without such as Cardinal William Allen!

Cardinal Allen’s solution to the lack of priests in England was to found seminaries on the continent for the education and training of boys and young men from that wounded country. The first of these seminaries was founded at Douai in Flanders in 1568. Then, in 1576, The Cardinal converted the English Hospice in Rome into a seminary and its first students arrived in 1577. Since this was a time of persecution in their homeland, it was expedient that the students assumed an alias. David Lewis entered the English College in 1638, when he was 21 years old, and assumed the alias of Charles Baker. He was ordained there in July 1642.

Many of the students at the English College had volunteered for the ‘English Mission’. After ordination they would return home to minister to their beleaguered Catholic countrymen who, despite Government hopes and penalties, clung resolutely to the Old Faith! The priests undertook this mission in the full knowledge that the rest of their days would be spent in peril, finding shelter where they could and tending to their flocks amid the ever present dangers of betrayal, arrest and execution.

The College produced a long line of priests who, for their faith, suffered imprisonment or exile. More than forty former students were martyred. The first, or protomartyr, was St Ralph Sherwin who was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1st December 1581. The last alumnus to suffer martyrdom was St David Lewis who was executed at Usk on 27th August 1679. Because of its many martyrs, the College has been known as The Venerable English College since 1818.

ST STEPHEN’S DAY 1642

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was the Government’s objective that the Catholic Faith should die out in England. To this end, new laws were introduced forbidding the training and ordination of Catholic priests. According to their plan, once the Marian priests (those ordained under Catholic Queen Mary) died, there would be no priests to take their place and, of course, no priests would mean the end of Catholicism in the country. They reckoned without the tenacity of the Catholics!

Cardinal William Allen conceived of a plan to alleviate the situation. In 1568, Cardinal Allen opened a seminary in Douai, Flanders, for the training of boys and young men from Britain. Then in 1576, he converted the English Hospice in Rome into a seminary. Its first students arrived in 1577. Many of its students, upon ordination, were destined for the “English Mission”, having to steal back into their homeland in disguise. Being a time of great persecution, the College quickly gained a reputation as a training ground for martyrs. Its protomartyr, St Ralph Sherwin, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1st December 1581.

In 1638, David Lewis, a 21 year old Welshman, entered the English College in Rome. Because of the persecution at home, it was necessary for the British students to assume an alias. David Lewis assumed the name of Charles Baker. On 20th July 1642, David Lewis was ordained priest at the English College.

Owing to the number of its martyred students, the custom arose of a student of the English College preaching on the theme of martyrdom before the Pope on St Stephen’s Day. On St Stephen’s Day 1642, that honour fell to the recently ordained Fr David Lewis. Fr Lewis preached eloquently before Pope Urban VIII in the Lateran Basilica. His Latin homily, entitled “Corona Christi pro spinis gemmea”, was on the Martyrdom of St Stephen, the first Christian Martyr.

The College produced a long line of priests who, for their faith, suffered imprisonment or exile. More than 40 former students were martyred. The last Alumnus to suffer martyrdom was St David Lewis who was executed at Usk on 27th August 1679. Because of its many martyrs, the College has been known since 1818 as “The Venerable English College”.

(The photograph of the two Martyrs is taken from a stained glass window in the Catholic Church, Tenby, South Wales)