Blessed WILLIAM HARTLEY, Priest, 1588

A MOTHER'S SACRIFICE

Biography

BORN in the Diocese of Lichfield and brought up a Protestant, he became Chaplain and Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, but was removed from that part by Tobie Matthew 

(ironically whose son, also Tobie became a priest), the president, on suspicion of his Catholic tendencies. 

He then went to Rheims, was reconciled, ordained, and returned to the English Mission in 1580.

Within a twelvemonth of his arrival he was arrested, in the house of Lady Stonor, and imprisoned in the Tower. In 1585, after five years' imprisonment, he, with some twenty other priests, was sent into banishment, but his zeal for souls drove him back to England, though he knew death awaited him. He laboured again amidst good report and evil report, the heretics having pretended that he had apostatised, and he converted, amongst others, a Captain Cripps, a well-known personage at that time, who subsequently entered the service of the King of Spain. Father Hartley was carried to execution with John Hewitt, who was hanged at Mile's End Green, with Robert Sutton, who suffered at Clerkenwell, and was himself finally executed at Shoreditch, having refused to ask for the Queen's forgiveness, since his priesthood had been his only offence. His mother was present at his passion, and rejoiced exceedingly that she had brought forth a son to glorify God by such a death.

"There stood by the cross of Jesus His mother."—JOHN xix. 25.

+ Blessed JOHN ROBINSON, Priest 1588

A TRUE ISRAELITE

Biography

BORN at Fernsby, Yorkshire, he lived for some time in the world in the married state, but on becoming a widower he went over to Rheims, was ordained, and sent on the Mission. He was a man of great simplicity and sincerity, and he used to say that " if he could not dispute for the faith as well as some of the others, he could die for it as well as the best." He was apprehended in the very port where he . landed, and cast into the Clink prison. 

His fellow-prisoners, in respect to his age and probity, called him "Father," and he in return styled them his "bairns," and when they were sent off to be executed in different parts of the Kingdom, the good old man lamented for days exceedingly, until at last the warrant for his own execution arrived. To the bearer of the warrant he gave all his money, and on his knees gave God thanks. He was sent to suffer at Ipswich, a long journey taken on foot, but he refused to put on boots, as he said, " These feet of mine have never worn them, and they can well travel now without them, for they will be well repaid." He was executed October 1, 1588.

" Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile."—JOHN i. 47.

Blessed THOMAS HOLFORD, Priest, 1588

A HUNTED LIFE

Biography

THE son of a Protestant minister in Cheshire, he was reconciled by Father Davis, and ordained, and his life as a priest seems to have been a fulfilment of the Gospel precept of flight under persecution. " He was first searched for," says Father Davis, "in the house where I lay, on All Souls' Day, but escaped. Again, after being nearly taken in the search for Babington, he repaired again to a house where I was staying, but we escaped to a hay-barn, through a secret place at the foot of the stairs. He then laboured for souls in his own county, Cheshire, was apprehended, sent to London, and lodged in an inn at Holborn. Then, rising early, he managed to pass the pursuivants, who had drunk hard and were asleep. On Holborn Viaduct he met a Catholic gentleman, who, seeing him half-dressed, thought him a madman. Pulling off his yellow stocking and white boot-hose, he walked barefoot by unfrequented paths till he arrived, late at night, at a house where I lay, about eight miles from London. He had eaten nothing, and his feet were bleeding and torn with briars and thorns. My hosts and their daughters tended him and put him to bed. The next year he was apprehended, and executed, August 28, at Clerkenwell."

" They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being in want, distressed, afflicted, of whom the world was not worthy."—HEB. xi.37, 38.