Saint ALEXANDER BRIANT, Jesuit, 1581

THE CROSS AND THE CROWN

WHEN he went to Westminster Hall to be condemned he made a cross of such wood as he could get, apparently a small wooden trencher, and upon it he drew with charcoal a figure of our Lord. This rough crucifix he carried with him openly. He made shift also to shave his crown because he would signify to the prating ministers which scoffed and mocked him that he was not ashamed of his Holy Orders, nor yet that he would blush at his religion. When then the ministers reproached him and bade him cast his crucifix away, he answered : “ Never will I do so, for I am a soldier of the Cross, nor will I henceforth desert this Standard until death.” Another stretched forward and snatched the cross from his hands, upon which he said : “ You may tear it from my hands, but you cannot take it from mv heart. Nay, I shall die for Him who first died on it for me.” On the scaffold, with his fair and honest face beaming with joy, he expressed his great happiness in being made worthy to die for the faith, and in Company with Edmund Campion whom he heartily revered. As the words of the Miserere were on his lips the cart was drawn away.

“God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.”— GAL. vi. 14.