THE PERJURER TITUS OATES AND EIGHT JESUITS (PART 7)

To continue our posts on the eight Jesuits who fell victim to the false Oates/Popish Plot, we come to Blessed William Harcourt S J.

William Barrow was born in Lancashire in 1609. He studied at St Omer and entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1632 at Watten. In 1644 Fr William Barrow S J returned to England to work in the London district. Using the aliases of Waring and Harcourt, he spent thirty-five years labouring in dangerous conditions.

In the late summer of 1678 Titus Oates set off a frenzy of fear, suspicion and hatred that resulted in the deaths of many innocent Catholics. Oates fabricated a story, remembered in history as the Oates Plot or the Popish Plot, in which Catholics, led by the Jesuits, were planning to restore the country to Catholicism by murdering the King and bringing down the Protestant Establishment. As the fury grew, Oates found others willing to join him in his heinous deception, notably William Bedloe and Stephen Dugdale. Of course, money was also a great incentive as the Government offered a reward for the capture of any priest. As expected, this brought in many a rogue who was willing to perjure himself.

Through all this, Fr Harcourt urged his fellow Jesuits to flee abroad. However, he remained in London and did his utmost to care for his imprisoned brethren. The priest changed his residence daily but he was betrayed by a servant at one of the houses and, on 7th May 1679, he was arrested. He was thrown into Newgate Prison, joining fellow Jesuits Thomas Whitbread, John Fenwick, John Gavan and Anthony Turner. With the others, Fr Harcourt came to trial on 13th June.

Chief Justice Scroggs presided at the trial and the abhorrent trio of Oates, Bedloe and Dugdale were the chief witnesses against the priest. It was a surprise to no one that the Jesuit was found guilty and condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered, the usual sentence for High Treason. The gruesome execution was carried out at Tyburn on 20th June 1679. His martyred remains were claimed by friends who interred them in the Churchyard of St Giles in the Fields.

Although his real name was William Barrow a Papal Decree of 4th December 1886 introduced his cause for canonisation under the name of William Harcourt. It was under the name of William Harcourt that he was beatified in 1929.

LINKS TO THIS POST:
THE PERJURER TITUS OATES AND EIGHT JESUITS (PART1)
(PART 2) (PART 3) (PART 4) (PART 5) (PART 6)

FIRST PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD

Tomb of Dr David Lewis, Abergavenny Priory Church 

(Photo J D Smith)

The last Welsh Martyr, St David Lewis, comes from an old and respected Abergavenny family and there are many prominent, even famous, people in his family tree. One of them is Dr David Lewis.

Dr David Lewis was born in Abergavenny around 1520. His father was Lewis ap John (Wallis), Vicar of Abergavenny and Llandeilo Bertholau. Following the Welsh custom, David took his father’s Christian name as his surname. He was educated at Oxford and went on to a very distinguished career. Among his achievements, Dr David Lewis was a lawyer, close advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, a Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire, and a Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. He was one of the founding members of Jesus College, Oxford and, on 27th June 1571, Lewis became its first Principal. It is probably in this capacity that Dr David Lewis is best remembered.

Dr David Lewis never married. He died in London on 27th April 1584. His remains were brought back to his hometown, Abergavenny, to be interred in St Mary’s Priory Church. He is buried beneath a tomb which he himself had commissioned. His tomb, showing its age now, can be seen in that part of the church which is known as the Lewis Chapel.

How is David Lewis, first Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, related to David Lewis, last Welsh Martyr? Saint David Lewis, through his mother, Margaret Pritchard, is the great-great nephew of Dr David Lewis. The Saint’s mother was MARGARET PRITCHARD, daughter of MARGARET BAKER, who was daughter of MAUD LEWIS, sister of DR DAVID LEWIS and the daughter of LEWIS WALLIS. That also makes St David Lewis the great-great grandson of the Vicar of Abergavenny and Llandeilo Bertholau, Lewis ap John, known as Wallis.

(1)Lewis Wallis m Lucy

Dr David Lewis (2) Maud Lewis m William Baker

(3) Margaret Baker m Henry Pritchard

(4) Margaret Pritchard m Morgan Lewis

(5) St David Lewis

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. On this day in 1571, the great naval Battle of Lepanto was fought between an alliance of Christian Countries and the Ottoman Empire. Our Lady’s intercession had been invoked and a Rosary Procession had taken place that day in Rome. In thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary, Pope Pius V instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. In acknowledgement that the victory was the fruit of the Rosary, Pope Gregory XIII, in 1573, changed the name to the Feast of the Holy Rosary. The Feast was kept on the first Sunday of October but, in 1913, Pope Pius X changed the date of the celebration to 7th October. Another change came in 1969 when Pope Paul VI changed the name to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Although there have been changes to the name and date of the Feast of the Holy Rosary, one thing has remained constant. That is the sincere devotion to Mary and the Holy Rosary. Through the centuries, Catholics have turned to Mary in times of joy and times of sorrow. In the Mysteries of the Rosary, and accompanied by Mary, they have walked with Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary and beyond.

Even during the life of King Henry VIII, those who clung to the Old Faith also clung to Mary. Ten years after the bloody martyrdoms began, Henry’s famous flagship, ‘Mary Rose’, went down off the Isle of Wight in 1545. In the early 1980s ‘Mary Rose’ was raised and many well preserved items were recovered. Among the recovered items was a wooden Rosary! Some long ago Tudor sailor’s love of Mary and the Rosary was stronger than all the King’s wrath.

In Penal times, both in England and its overseas colonies, the Rosary helped keep the faith alive. With no priest available to celebrate Mass and the Sacraments, Catholics would gather in secret to recite the Rosary. In Penal Days in Ireland, the Penal Rosary, a string of ten beads designed to be used discretely up a sleeve or in a pocket, was widely used. Not many original Penal Rosaries survive, but modern versions are readily available.

The martyrs too were devoted to Mary and the Rosary. St Henry Walpole, St Luke Kirby, and St Thomas Garnet, to name but a few, mounted the gallows steps with the ‘Hail Mary’ on their lips. Some sources say that St John Boste was saying the Angelus as he mounted the gallows while other sources state that he was praying the Rosary. Angelus or Rosary, John Boste sought the assistance of the Mother of God!

Shortly before his execution, twenty-five year old St Alexander Briant wrote to the English Jesuits; “The same day that I was first tormented on the rack, before I came to the place, giving my mind to prayer, and commending myself and all mine to Our Lord, I was replenished and filled up with a kind of supernatural sweetness of spirit; and even while I was calling upon the name of Jesus and upon the Blessed Virgin Mary (for I was saying the Rosary), my mind was cheerfully disposed, well comforted, and readily prepared and bent to suffer and endure those torments which even then I most certainly looked for."

St John Ogilvie was martyred at Glasgow Cross on 10th March 1615. He had secreted on his person his treasured Rosary beads and, after he was pushed off the gallows steps, he triumphantly flung his beads into the crowd. It was said that the beads were caught by one of his enemies who eventually became a Catholic.

The Blessed Virgin Mary herself has asked us to pray the Rosary daily. On this beautiful Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, let us be diligent in responding to her plea.

A WORTHY SON OF ST FRANCIS

Today is the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. To celebrate this important Feast Day, I am posting about a worthy son of St Francis, the courageous Martyr, St John Wall. The photo is of the beautiful plaque which is in the Catholic Church at Harvington Hall. It depicts St John Wall in the guise of a gentleman of the period. At that time, priests worked covertly so it was not a good idea to advertise the fact that you were a priest. John’s Franciscan identity is evoked by the animals and birds which surround him. Of all the portrayals I have seen of St John Wall, I think this is my favourite. (Click on the picture to enlarge it for a better view.)

John Wall was born in Lancashire in 1620 into a pious Catholic family. He was baptised by Edmund Arrowsmith, who would suffer martyrdom in 1628. John was still quite young when his parents sent him to the English College at Douai. In those days of Penal Laws and harsh persecution of Catholics, there was always the risk of Government spies infiltrating the Colleges. For this reason, it became the practice for students to assume an alias in the slim hope of affording a little protection to themselves and to their families at home. At Douai, John adopted the alias of John Marsh.

On 5th November 1641, John enrolled at the English College in Rome where he continued to use the alias of John Marsh. At the English College he met the Welshman, David Lewis, and the two became firm friends. John, it is thought, was one of the students present in the Lateran Basilica on St Stephen’s Day, 26th December, 1642, when the recently ordained Fr David Lewis preached a short homily before Pope Urban VIII. John Wall was ordained on 3rd December 1645. He returned to England in 1648 but in 1651 he was back in Douai where he joined the Franciscan Friars Minor. He was professed the following year and took the name of Joachim of St Anne.

In 1656, Fr Joachim of St Anne, O F M, was sent upon the perilous English Mission. He spent the rest of his life diligently labouring in Worcestershire and neighbouring counties. In England, John used the aliases of Francis Johnson, Francis Webb and Francis Dormore. Harvington Hall, near Kidderminster, Worcestershire, was his base for about 12 years and during this period he was known as Francis Webb.

In late summer of 1678, the fictitious Oates/Popish Plot spewed across the land. Priests were ruthlessly hunted down. With the Government incentive of a reward of £50 for the apprehension of any priest, there was no shortage of informers! John Wall, however, was apprehended by an unfortunate accident. In December 1678, John was seized at Rushock Court near Bromsgrove when the Sheriff’s Deputy was searching for a debtor. John refused to take the Oath of Allegiance and was immediately imprisoned in Worcester Gaol. From prison he wrote; “Imprisonment, in these times especially, when none can send to their friends, nor friends come to them, is the best means to teach us how to put our confidence in God alone in all things ....”

On 25th April 1679, John Wall came before Judge Atkins for trial. He was indicted for high treason for being a priest and remaining in the country. Predictably, the Franciscan was found guilty and sentenced to death. When the verdict was delivered, John replied “Thanks be to God; God save the King; and I beseech God to bless your lordship, and all this honourable bench.” He was returned to prison to await his execution.

At the beginning of May 1679, John was taken to London to be examined by the plotters and perjurers, Titus Oates, William Bedloe, Stephen Dugdale and Myles Prance. Here again he met with his old friend, the Welsh Jesuit, Fr David Lewis. Fr Lewis, 80 year old Fr John Kemble and Fr Roger Hanslip had also been summoned to London and all four were lodged together in Newgate Prison. The four were detained in Newgate for about a month and each examined by Oates and his co-plotters in an attempt to implicate them in the non-existent Popish Plot. No evidence could be found against the priests, they could not be enticed or coerced into lying or apostatising to save their lives so, early in June, they were all sent back to their respective prisons to await their grim fate.

Fr Wall’s time came on 22nd August 1679. The Sheriff offered John the opportunity of dying the following day so that he would not have to endure the humiliation of dying with two common criminals! John gratefully declined, telling him that if it was good enough for Jesus, then it was good enough for him. Thus, John Wall, O F M, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Red Hill, Worcester. The Catholics of the town boldly accompanied his remains to St Oswald’s Churchyard where he was buried.

A fellow Friar, William Leveson, visited Fr Wall during his imprisonment. The English Franciscans at Douai are in possession of a letter written by Fr Leveson. In this letter, dated 25th August 1679, Fr Leveson wrote: “I found, contrary in both his and my expectation, the favour of being with him alone; and the day before his execution, I enjoyed that privilege for the space of four or five hours together; during which time I heard his confession, and communicated him to his great joy and satisfaction. I ventured likewise, through his desire, to be present at his execution, and placed myself boldly next to the Under-Sheriff, near the gallows, where I had the opportunity of giving him the last absolution, just as he was turned off the ladder.”

One week later, on 27th August, Fr John Wall’s classmate and good friend, Fr David Lewis, suffered martyrdom at Usk. On 15th December 1929, the Franciscan and the Jesuit were beatified by Pope Pius XI. Forty-one years later, on 25th October 1970, Pope Paul VI canonised the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Fr David Lewis S J and Fr John Wall O F M were among the Forty.

FIRST ANNIVERSARY
On the beautiful feast of St Francis of Assisi, 4th October 2009, I timidly ventured into an unknown country. Blogland! So, today is my First Anniversary as a blogger. How has it been? Well, I am still finding my way around this vast cyber territory but I am no longer timid and I think I have learned a lot. I know that out there in Blogland there are so many, many great people and, to my own wonder and surprise, quite a few of them I regard as dear friends. A year ago I was of the opinion that calling someone you hadn’t actually met a “friend” was a seriously foolish notion. How wrong I was! Here we are, my blog and I, a whole year older and I am so pleased to call you friends. For me, as you know, this has been a year of more “downs” than “ups” and that is where you bloggers have shown real friendship. For that I thank you all. As I begin my second year of blogging to promote our wonderful Welsh Jesuit Martyr, St David Lewis, I look forward to your visits and comments and to visiting all of you. While cherishing the old friends, I welcome the new. Thank you, my friends, and may God bless you all.

VISIT CLARE

I had not planned to post today. Today I was just going to take it easy and look in on some of my favourite blogs. However, what I found at BATTLEMENTS OF RUBIES has changed my mind. Clare has done a wonderful post and I think you all should take a look at it here. Thanks, Clare, and keep up the good work.

ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT AND ST DAVID LEWIS

Devotion to St Michael the Archangel spread from Brittany to Wales in the 8th century. Churches dedicated to St Michael abound. Interestingly, many of these churches are associated with hills or mountains. One such place is Ysgyrid Fawr (Great Skirrid) in the Black Mountains of Wales. Ysgyrid Fawr lies on the outskirts of Abergavenny, the birthplace of St David Lewis. Ysgyrid Fawr is also known as ‘The Skirrid’, ‘The Holy Mountain’ or ‘St Michael’s Mount’.

At its highest point, St Michael’s Mount rises to 1,595 feet. It is here that one finds vestiges of a mediaeval Catholic Chapel dedicated to St Michael. Centuries ago, Catholics of the area struggled up the rough path on Good Friday and on 29th September, the feast of St Michael. There is not much left of the ancient chapel now but the sharp eyed will discern hints of its presence.

Even during Penal Times, Catholics were known to attend Mass and other services amid the ruins of St Michael’s Chapel. St David Lewis led Catholics there for the annual Michaelmas Pilgrimage. At that time, the altar was still intact. All of this must have been a very bitter pill for John Arnold to swallow. From his home, Llanvihangel Court, this rabid anti-Catholic and priest hunter could see the Catholics at their devotions atop the Holy Mountain. In 1680, in his Examinations as to Popery in Monmouthshire, Arnold stated that: “He hath seen a hundred papists meet on the top of an high Hill, called St Michael’s Mount, here is frequent meetings eight or ten times in the year, as he is informed. Mass is said, and sometimes Sermons are preached there. Mr John Scudamore of Kentchurch also deposed that:- He saw very great numbers of people at their Devotion on top of a high hill in Monmouthshire called St Michael’s Mount, where there is a ruinous Chappel and a stone with crosses on it, which he took to be an Altar and that he hath seen people with Beads in their hands kneeling towards the said stone, both within and without the Chappel and he has been informed that Mass is often said there.”

The Catholic Church of Our Ladye and St Michael, Abergavenny, possesses a *rescript of Pope Clement X. This rescript, dated three years before the martyrdom of St David Lewis, reads: “Pope Clement X grants a Plenary Indulgence to those who devoutly visit the Chapel of St Michael on the Skirrid Fawr on 29th September-Michaelmas Day. Anyone making this Pilgrimage and wishing to gain the Indulgence is required, first, to go to Confession and Holy Communion, then, on the Holy Mountain itself, to pray for peace among Christian Princes, for the rooting out of heresies, and for the exaltation of Holy Mother Church. Given at St Mary Major’s, Rome, under the Seal of the Fisherman, on 20th June 1676 and valid for seven years.”

St Michael’s Mount has belonged to the National Trust since 1939 and, with its magnificent views and ancient history, it is much favoured by hikers. It is said that Rudolph Hess, Hitler’s deputy, used to walk there when he was held at nearby Maindiff Court during WWII.

What of the pilgrims? Do they still come? Indeed they do! Every September, St Michael is honoured on his Feast Day as pilgrims wend their way to the summit, to the site of the ancient chapel where their ancestors risked danger and even death to remember Michael the Archangel and to practise their cherished Catholic faith.

*an ecclesiastical ruling - a formal reply by the pope or some other high dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church on a matter of doctrine or discipline

(CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM)

BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMAN AND THE ENGLISH MARTYRS

I'M OVERWHELMED!

Wow! Thank you bloggers for your overwhelming response to my little book giveaway! I had four books to give away and I said the books would go to the first four names and allowed a whole week to get the names in. Well, I am sorry but, to avoid disappointing anyone, I have to close the little giveaway now because I have more names than I ever expected. I have managed to come up with two more books so I will be able to send out six books instead of the planned four.

I am very grateful to all of you for your interest and support and, owing to the great response to this giveaway, I will have another one in the not too distant future. So thank you all and keep watching for the next giveaway.

The books go to the lovely people at the following blogs. (Click on the links to have a look at their excellent blogs.)

In Him We Live And Move And Have Our Being

Celestial Offerings

A Trail of Flowers

The Beautiful Gate

"go forth from the land of your kinsfolk"

Catholicseeking

Once again, thanks to all who entered. Your support is very much appreciated.

BOOK GIVEAWAY

It is entirely appropriate that I begin this post by quoting the newly beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman. "No one is a martyr for a conclusion; no one is a martyr for an opinion. It is faith that makes martyrs"

On Sunday, 25th October 1970, Pope Paul VI canonised the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. The forty were selected from among the hundreds who, during the 16th and 17th centuries, had given their lives for the faith.

The new saints were a very mixed group of priests and laypeople whose martyrdoms spanned the years from 1535 to 1679. The group was comprised of 3 Carthusians; 1 Augustinian friar; 1 Brigittine; 2 Franciscans; 3 Benedictines; 10 Jesuits; 13 Priests of the Secular Clergy; 4 lay men and 3 lay women.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the canonisation of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, I have four little booklets to give away. The booklet is published by the Catholic Truth Society and although just 56 pages long, it tells the story of each of the martyrs from the first martyr of the Reformation, St John Houghton in 1535 to St David Lewis in 1679.

If you would like one of these interesting and informative little booklets, just leave your name and mailing address in the comments below. I have activated ‘comment moderation’ so your details will be strictly private. The first four bloggers to leave their details will receive one of the books. You have one week to get your name in, from today up to and including 30th September. So come on, don’t be shy! I promise to keep your details private and to destroy them as soon as I have sent the books to the winners. And, because the books are small, I will post them anywhere so don’t be put off because you live in another country or on another continent! Remember, I will post them to anywhere. Let’s hear from you bloggers.

AN AWARD

Thank you very much, Mary 333 at THE BEAUTIFUL GATE for this award.

Here are the rules for passing it on:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers that you have newly discovered.
3. Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.

I don't know if I can come up with 15 but I will certainly have a good try .

I choose:

Give Us Today Our Daily Blog

A Book Of Everything

A Reluctant Sinner

Blessed Virgin Mary's Bower

Catholicanuck

Cherished Hearts at Home

Daily Divine

Faith of the Fathers
Portiuncula:the little portion

Rosary Priest

Lady of Dor-Lomin

WI Catholic Musings

THE PERJURER TITUS OATES AND EIGHT JESUITS (PART 6)

THE FIFTH VICTIM, BLESSED ANTHONY TURNER S J (ALIAS ASHBY)

Anthony Turner was born in Leicestershire in 1628, during the reign of King Charles I. He was born into a staunch Protestant family, his father being a Protestant minister. Anthony, along with his mother and brother, Edward, began to seriously question the Protestant religion. This, understandably, infuriated his father. Anthony went to study at Cambridge University and while there he converted to Catholicism, despite his father’s rage. Edward also converted to the Catholic faith. The two brothers then went to Rome to study at the English College.

The Government’s objective was to eradicate Catholicism in the land. Therefore, laws and statutes were introduced which imposed dire penalties on any who had the audacity to practise their Catholic Faith. Of course without priests, there could be no Mass, no Sacraments and no help for those who still clung to the Old Faith. There were no longer any seminaries in England. In an effort to redress this problem, Cardinal William Allen established seminaries on the Continent specifically to train priests for England and Wales. These brave men went in secret to the seminaries and, after ordination, they returned, again in secret, to minister to their persecuted countrymen. Cardinal Allen established the English College in Rome in 1579.

In 1653, Anthony left the English College in Rome and travelled to Flanders where he entered the Jesuit Novitiate. He was ordained in 1659 and two years later, in 1661, he returned to England where he spent the next eighteen years ministering in Worcestershire.

When the terror of the phoney Oates/Popish Plot spread its poisonous tentacles over the country, Fr Anthony Turner was more than willing to give his life for the Faith which was so dear to him. However, his superiors insisted he leave the country. In January 1679, Fr Turner reluctantly made his way to London. He hoped to find a Jesuit who would provide him with sufficient funds to escape to the Continent. The search proved fruitless so the priest gave what little money he possessed to a beggar. He then turned himself over to the authorities. He was promptly arrested and thrown into Newgate Prison where several other Jesuits were awaiting trial.

On 13th June 1679 Anthony Turner was brought for trial at the Old Bailey. The witnesses against him were the convicted perjurers and embezzlers, Titus Oates, William Bedloe and Stephen Dugdale. One of the trial rules was that ‘no Catholic could be believed in court’ so the false testimony of the miscreants was taken over that of credible witnesses. As was the custom, the jury was instructed to find the defendant guilty and this they obediently did. Anthony Turner was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

A week later, on 20th June 1679, Fr Turner was taken to Tyburn where the sentence was to be carried out. At the last minute, which also appears to be the custom, a messenger arrived from the King offering a pardon. All the priest had to do was to admit his guilt and tell all he knew of the plot. Fr Turner replied that no plot existed. He could not disclose details of a plot that existed only in the putrid mind of the perjurer, Titus Oates. The Jesuit was not willing to lie to save his life. In a speech from the gallows, he told the spectators: “I am bound in conscience to do myself that justice as to declare upon oath my innocence from the horrid crime of treason with which I am falsely accused. I am as free from the treason I am accused of as a child that is just born. I die a Roman Catholic and humbly beg the prayers of such for my happy passage into a better life”. He prayed privately for a few minutes then the cart was pulled away.

After the gruesome sentence was carried out, the brutalised remains of Fr Turner were taken away by friends who buried them in the churchyard of St Giles in the Fields. In December 1929 Pope Pius XI beatified Jesuit Martyr, Fr Anthony Turner.

LINKS TO THIS POST:

THE PERJURER TITUS OATES AND EIGHT JESUITS (PART 1)

(PART 2) (PART 3) (PART 4) (PART 5)

THANKS BE TO GOD

I post this video because, as I watched Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, together, I felt a kind of joy that things have changed so very much. This blog is dedicated to a Martyred Welsh Jesuit Priest, St David Lewis. I have also written about many other Catholic priests who were put to death simply for being Catholic priests and for celebrating Mass. This video, and the above photograph, are a joy to behold. They illustrate just what God's grace can do if we allow it to work in us. Our beloved Queen and our beloved Pontiff! Isn't it wonderful to see them together in friendship? I think St David Lewis would be very pleased. May God bless our Queen and our Pope!

THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

Today is the Feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is a good time to post this short video from the Apostleship of Prayer.

THE PERJURER TITUS OATES AND EIGHT JESUITS (PART 5)

BLESSED JOHN GAVAN S J

A plot, known as the ‘Oates Plot’ or the ‘Popish Plot’ was conceived in the fertile but warped mind of the malevolent Titus Oates. In August 1678, Oates claimed that a plot to murder the King, bring down the Protestant Establishment and re-establish Catholicism in England was being hatched by Catholics. The Jesuits, according to Oates, were the leaders of this imagined plot. In reality, there was no plot against the Crown or Protestantism. The real plot was the one which Oates was building up against the Jesuits. Before Oates and the bunch of criminals who were his co-conspirators were finally exposed many innocent Catholics had suffered and died. Among those who were put to death for their faith were eight Jesuit priests. The horror began for the Jesuits in January 1679 when Fr William Ireland was executed at Tyburn in London. Another victim was 39 year old Fr John Gavan or Green.

John Gavan was born in London in 1640. The young Gavan went to St Omer and, in 1660, he entered the Jesuits. He was ordained in Rome in 1670. Like all priests who returned to minister in England, Fr Gavan was fully cognisant of the dangers under the severe Penal Laws which existed at that time. Nonetheless, Fr Gavan returned to his homeland in 1671 and commenced his work, chiefly in the Staffordshire area, where he laboured untiringly.

At the height of the Oates Plot, the Government offered a £50 reward for the apprehension of any priest. This lead to a vigorous search for and betrayal of priests, Jesuit and otherwise, up and down the country. In the hope of escaping to the Continent, Fr Gavan made his way to London. Unfortunately, that was not to be and he was apprehended on 23rd January 1679. Along with four other Jesuits, Fr John Gavan was brought to trial at the Old Bailey on 13th June 1679.

Fr Gavan was an erudite and articulate priest and he skilfully defended the group. In this instance, the skill and honesty of the Jesuit were no match for the false witnesses, prejudiced Judge and rigged jury. As was expected, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Fr John Gavan was martyred at Tyburn on 20th June 1679. His mutilated and quartered remains were claimed by friends and buried in St Giles in the Fields.

LINKS TO THIS POST:

The Perjurer Titus Oates and Eight Jesuits (Part 1)

(Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)

FR ROBERT BARRON, A TALE OF TWO SKULLS

All of Fr Robert Barron's videos are interesting and informative but I have chosen to post this one because it concerns two English martyrs, Blessed Peter Snow and Blessed Ralph Grimston. Fr Barron tells their story beautifully and, amazingly, brings their faces before us. I hope you like this video as much as I do. It was a new and exciting experience to see the faces of the two holy martyrs.