+ Blessed JOHN SUGAR, Priest, 1604

THE CONTINUITY THEORY

Biography

OF a good Staffordshire family, and Merton College, Oxford, though he refused the oath of Supremacy, he officiated as a minister at Cank (now called Cannock), in his own county, and preached against the Pope and the Catholic faith. At length his eyes were opened to the truth ; he forsook all worldly hopes, was reconciled, ordained, and sent on the English Mission, 1601. His special work was among the poorer Catholics in the Midland counties, travelling on foot from place to place, ministering to their needs. Apprehended and sentenced at Warwick, at the gallows he replied to the minister that his faith was that of his mother, the Catholic Church, and asked him in return who converted England? The minister was unable to reply. Sugar said : "The successor of St. Peter, Pope Eleutherius, who sent Damianus and Fugatius, two learned and godly men, by whom Lucius, King of Britain, and his subjects received the true faith ; but this new religion," he said, " crept into this country in the time of Henry VIII." As the rope was put round his neck he blessed it, saying, "My true birth in this world began with the sign of the cross, and with that sign I leave it again." He suffered at Warwick, July 16.

"You are fellow-citizens with the saints . . . built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone."—EPH. ii. 19, 20.