+ BISHOP THIRLBY OF ELY, 1570 ,

CHEERFUL IN ADVERSITY

Biography

HE was absent on an Embassy in France on Elizabeth's accession. On April 2,1559, he concluded the treaty of Cateau Cambresis, and on his return to England he at once joined the other Bishops in opposition to the Bill of Royal Supremacy. He refused the oath and was deposed July 5,1559, was committed to the Tower June 3, 1560, and endured there the miseries of close and separate confinement until September 1563, when the plague was raging. Elizabeth was then at Windsor Castle, and there was set up, Stowe writes, in the market-place of Windsor a new gallows to hang up all such as came there from London, so that no person might come from London upon pain of hanging without judgment. With this panic at Court the Protestant Bishops were naturally uneasy at receiving orders to house the illustrious prisoners from the town. Thirlby was allotted to Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and wrote to him cheerfully that he was an unbidden guest, who, according to the proverb, " wotteth not where to sit," and that he doubted how to travel without danger because of the plague. Yet" need maketh the old wife trot." Dr. Thirlby remained unshaken in Parker's custody for seven years, when, stricken by grave illness, he was released by death.

"According to the multitude of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts have given joy to my soul."—Ps. xciii. 19.

Matthew Parker first protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. It is often said that the term "nosey Parker" comes from him, as he was always making inquiry into business that was not his own.

Blessed JOHN FELTON, Layman, 1570

CHAMPION OF THE POPE

As a cruel persecutor of the faith she had sworn to defend, Elizabeth was excommunicated and deposed by St. Pius V, February 24, 1570, and the Bull of excommunication was found on May 25, the Feast of Corpus Christi, on the gates of the Bishop of London's palace, where it had been placed by John Felton, a brave and zealous Catholic gentleman. After this act he refused to fly, trusting, he said, to God's grace for whatever might happen, and when the escort arrived for his arrest, he voluntarily surrendered himself. Both at his apprehension and his trial, he openly acknowledged having posted up the Bull, and said that, as he held the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ, what came from him ought to be duly venerated. Notwithstanding this public confession, he was three times racked in the vain hope of extracting from him admission, compromising others. In his satin doublet, on the day of his martyrdom, as he faced the crowd, calm and unmoved, he looked indeed a royal champion, and he told the people that he died for the Catholic faith. His last words on being disembowelled were " Jesus, Jesus." He sent the Queen, from the scaffold, a ring worth ^400, showing he bore her personally no ill-will. He suffered, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, August 8.

"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church."—MATT. xvi. 18.

Other martyrs connected with the Excommunication
Martyrs connected with the Excommunication: Thomas Plumtree p., 4 Jan., 1571; John Storey, D.C.L., 1 June, 1571; Thomas Percy. Earl of Northumberland, 22 Aug., 1572; Thomas Woodhouse p., 13 June, 1573.