The Right Honourable Sir Thomas More | |
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Died | 6 July 1535 (aged 57) Tower Hill, London, England |
Edward the Martyr. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Edward the Martyr (Old English: Eadweard, pronounced [æːɑdweɑrd]; c. 962 – 18 March 978) was King of England from 975 until he was murdered in 978.
Cuthbert Mayne. …39 other British martyrs (the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales), was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970, on October 25, the day designated as their feast day.…. Saint Margaret Clitherow. …March 25), one of the 40 British martyrs who were executed for harbouring priests during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England.….
Commemorative sign for Edward the Martyr at Corfe Castle, Dorset, UK. The sign is an artist's impression of Edward, and underneath is written "Edward the Martyr King of Wessex treacherously stabbed at Corves gate in A.D. 978 by his stepmother Elfrida".
At the quartering the footmen of the French Ambassador and of the Count of Egmont dipped their handkerchiefs into the martyr’s blood. In 1647 many persons possessed by evil spirits were relieved through the application of his relics.
From 1510 to 1518 he was one of the two under-sheriffs of London and in 1517 entered the king's service, becoming one of Henry VIII's most effective and trusted civil servants and acting as his secretary, interpreter, speech-writer, chief diplomat, advisor and confidant.
On 1 July 1535, Thomas More stood trial for treason, and he was condemned to death for 'maliciously denying the royal Supremacy'. Five days later, while Henry hunted at Reading, More was beheaded on Tower Hill, proclaiming himself 'the King's good servant but God's first'.
Thomas More, in full Sir Thomas More, also called Saint Thomas More, (born February 7, 1478, London, England—died July 6, 1535, London; canonized May 19, 1935; feast day June 22), English humanist and statesman, chancellor of England (1529–32), who was beheaded for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the ...
Prior to his time in politics, Thomas More was a celebrated author and scholar, his most famous work today being Utopia which includes a philosophical description of an ideal society set on an island. Thomas More was made a saint in 1935 CE by the Catholic Church.
On April 17, 1534, in the Tower of London, King Henry cited treason in Thomas More's refusal to take the oath. Even after his sentencing, Sir Thomas More was given the option of taking the oath and receiving a pardon. But he did no such thing. Sir Thomas More was beheaded on July 6, 1535.
More was an influential man and although he never spoke out against the King, choosing to resign from his post and keep silent instead, Henry VIII felt betrayed and made an example of More and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who also refused to sign the oath.
During More's chancellorship, six people were burned at the stake for heresy; they were Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.
A devout defender of the Catholic Church, More felt he could no longer serve as Chancellor to Henry VIII and resigned his position. Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the end for More, who continued to argue against Protestantism and thus was tried and executed in July 1535.
His eldest daughter Margaret married the lawyer William Roper in 1521, and More continued his practice of prayer and supervision of learning at his home. His home at Chelsea was as close as Tudor England would come to an 18th century French salon.
However, Sir Thomas More did not sign this document because it was in direct violation of his religious beliefs. He was not opposed to Anne being the queen, but he was opposed to Henry being the head of the Catholic Church in England.
Henry VII is known for being the first Tudor King, and for being the father of King Henry VIII. A shrewd king, he gathered huge wealth for the Crown.
Reformer Martin LutherIt was the selling of indulgences that led the Reformer Martin Luther to post his famous 95 Theses - a document challenging Roman Catholic authority in theological matters, including indulgences and many others. Luther's opposition to the selling of indulgences was not new, however.
Some were executed for offenses as trivial as obtaining a papal license to marry. Forty of these victims were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as representatives of all the martyrs, including St. Margaret Clitherow, St. Cuthbert Mayne, and St. Edmund Campion.
In 1987 Pope John Paul II beatified an additional 85 martyrs who died between 1584 and 1689 in England, Scotland, and Wales. Many were priests or members of religious orders, but 59—including seven of those canonized—were lay Catholics.
Robert Lawrence served as prior of the Charterhouse at Beauvale, Nottinghamshire. They were cruelly tortured and executed at Tyburn, making them among the first martyrs from the order in England. Beatified in 1886.
Summary: These forty men and women of England and Wales, martyred between 1535 and 1679, were canonised in Rome by Pope Paul VI on 25th October 1970. Each has their feast day but they are remembered as a group on 25th October. Patrick Duffy tells their story.
In 1850 when the Catholic hierarchy of England and Wales was reconstituted, the cause of about 300 martyrs was introduced at Rome. Oliver Plunkett was among these at that time. Almost 200 of these were beatified by Leo XIII and Pius XI. Cardinal John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Henry VIII’s chancellor, Sir Thomas More, were canonised in 1936.
The martyrdoms involving the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales span the years from 1535 to 1679.
In the Consistory of 18th May 1970, Pope Paul VI consulted the cardinals and announced that he would canonise the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales on 25th October 1970. The forty canonised that day were considered, after More and Fisher, the most representative from the original list of almost three hundred.
Edmund Arrowsmith 1585–1628. The son of Robert Arrowsmith, a farmer, he was born at Haydock in 1585 and was baptised Brian, but always used his Confirmation name of Edmund. The family was constantly harassed for its adherence to Catholicism, and in 1605 Edmund left England and went to Douai to study for the priesthood.
1 Brigittine: Richard Reynolds d. 1535. 2 Franciscans: John Jones d. 1598 (Friar Observant – also known as John Buckley, John Griffith, or Godfrey Maurice) John Wall d. 1679 (Franciscan – known at Douai and Rome as John Marsh, and by other aliases while on the mission in England) 3 Benedictines:
Edward, often refered to with his epithet Edward the Martyr ( Old English: Eadweard, pronounced [ˈæːɑdwæɑrˠd]; c. 962 – 18 March 978) was King of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar the Peaceful but was not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership ...
978 by his stepmother Elfrida".
In the so-called anti-monastic reaction, the nobles took advantage of Edward's weakness to dispossess the Benedictine reformed monasteries of lands and other properties that King Edgar had granted to them.
Archbishop Oswald was at odds with Ealdorman Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, while Ælfhere and his kin were rivals for power with the affinity of Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia. Dunstan was said to have questioned Edgar's marriage to Queen Dowager Ælfthryth and the legitimacy of their son Æthelred.
Edward's remains were hidden so as to avoid desecration.
Firstly, that Edward was killed, as the life of Oswald claims, by nobles in Æthelred's service, either as a result of a personal quarrel, or to place their master on the throne.
In some places, the secular clergy who had been driven from the monasteries returned, driving the regular clergy out in their turn. Bishop Æthelwold had been the main enemy of the seculars, and Archbishop Dunstan appears to have done little to aid his fellow reformer at this time.
Born around 962 , Edward was the only son of King Edgar the Peaceful and his first wife Ethelfled.
Work by James William Edmund Doyle depicting Edward the Martyr being offered mead by his stepmother, Queen Elfthryth. (19th century). “Men murdered him, but God exalted him. In life he was an earthly king; after death he is now a heavenly saint”.
During his three years in power, the so-called anti-monastic reaction took place, which involved members of the royal court taking their opportunity to reclaim power lost during King Edgar’s reign. Edgar had decided to increase the land ownership and power of the church, thus angering secular landowners in the process.
His remains were said to have been miraculously intact, a sign of his sainthood; his veneration followed and to this day Edward the Martyr’s feast day is celebrated on 18th March, the day of his mortal demise.
Today they reside in the Orthodox Church of St Edward the Martyr in Brookwood, Surrey.
Initially his body was placed in a grave near Wareham without any of the pomp or ceremony expected of a royal burial.
Born around 962, Edward was the only son of King Edgar the Peaceful and his first wife Ethelfled . Whilst he was the first son, he was not the acknowledged heir to the throne as his father had remarried twice and was now settled with his new Queen Elfthryth with whom he had another son, Ethelred the Unready.
The next day he won a great victory. Following this triumph, Richard adopted St. George as his personal patron and protector of the army. Although the banner of St. Edmund was still carried into battle by the English army, by the time of Edward I it had been joined by the flag of St. George.
That honour was originally held by St Edmund, or Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia in the 9th century AD. Born on Christmas Day 841 AD, Edmund succeeded to the throne of East Anglia in 856.
This event is reflected in the motto of Bury St Edmunds: ‘Shrine of a King, Cradle of the Law’. St Edmund’s influence began to fade when, during the Third Crusade in 1199, King Richard I visited the tomb of St. George in Lydda on the eve of battle. The next day he won a great victory.
This was the ‘St Edmund for England’ e-petition, backed by the Bury St Edmunds based brewery, Greene King. This tongue-in-cheek yet serious campaign questioned whether St George, patron saint of 16 other countries, ever even visited England. It suggested he should be replaced by an Englishman, and who better than the Anglo-Saxon martyr-king St ...
The date was 20th November. His decapitated head is said to have been reunited with its body with the help of a talking wolf who protected the head and then called out “Hic, Hic, Hic” (“Here, Here, Here”) to alert Edmund’s followers.
King Canute built a stone abbey on the site in 1020 to house the shrine. For centuries Edmund’s resting place was patronised by the kings of England and the abbey became increasingly wealthy as the cult of St Edmund grew.
by Ellen Castelow. It is commonly accepted that St George is the Patron Saint of England. We celebrate St George’s Day on April 23rd when the red cross of St George flies proudly from the flag pole.
The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales are a group of Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under various laws enacted by Parliament during the English Reformation. The individuals listed range from Carthusian monks who in 1535 declined to accept Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy, to seminary priests who were …
The first wave of executions came with the reign of King Henry VIII and involved persons who did not support the 1534 Act of Supremacy and dissolution of the monasteries. Carthusian John Houghton and Bridgettine Richard Reynolds died at this time.
In 1570 Pope Pius V, in support of various rebellions in England and Ireland, excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, absolving her Catholic subjects of their allegiance to her. The crown responde…
• Saint John Almond
• Saint Edmund Arrowsmith
• Saint Ambrose Barlow
• Saint John Boste
• Saint Alexander Briant
Following beatifications between 1886 and 1929, there were already numerous martyrs from England and Wales recognised with the rank of Blessed. The bishops of the province identified a list of 40 further names; reasons given for the choice of those particular names include a spread of social status, religious rank, geographical spread and the pre-existence of popular devotion. The list of names was submitted to Rome in December 1960. In the case of a martyr, a miracle i…
In England, these martyrs were formerly commemorated within the Catholic Church by a feast day on 25 October, which is also the feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, but they are now celebrated together with all the 284 canonized or beatified martyrs of the English Reformation on 4 May.
In Wales, the Catholic Church keeps 25 October as the feast of the Six Welsh Martyrs and their companions. The Welsh Martyrs are the priests Philip Evans and John Lloyd, John Jones, David L…
• Saint Thomas More
• Saint John Fisher
• List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation
• English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era, a Church of England commemoration-day for all martyrs of the English Reformation era
• Catholic Forum: Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
• Sermon of Paul VI on the occasion of the canonization of forty martyrs from England and Wales, 25 October 1970 (largely in Italian)
• Molinari, Paolo, S.J., "Canonization of 40 English and Welsh Martyrs", L'Osservatore Romano, 29 October 1970
Edward , often called the Martyr, was King of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar the Peaceful but was not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of England was contested, with some supporting Edward's claim to be king and others supporting his younger half-brother Æthelred the Unready, recognised as a legi…
Edward's date of birth is unknown, but he was the eldest of Edgar's three children. He was probably in his teens when he succeeded his father, who died at age 32 in 975. Edward was known to be King Edgar's son, but he was not the son of Queen Ælfthryth, the third wife of Edgar. This much and no more is known from contemporary charters.
Later sources of questionable reliability address the identity of Edward's mother. The earliest su…
Edgar had been a strong ruler who had forced monastic reforms on a probably unwilling church and nobility, aided by the leading clerics of the day, Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury; Oswald of Worcester, Archbishop of York; and Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester. By endowing the reformed Benedictine monasteries with the lands required for their support, he had dispossessed many lesser nobles, and had rewritten leases and loans of land to the benefit of the monasteries. Secu…
The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle containing the most detailed account records that Edward was murdered in the evening of 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth and Æthelred, probably at or near the mound on which the ruins of Corfe Castle now stand. It adds that he was buried at Wareham "without any royal honours". The compiler of this version of the Chronicle, manuscript E, called the Peterborough Chronicle, says:
Edward's body lay at Wareham for a year before being disinterred. Ælfhere initiated the reinterment, perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation. According to the life of Oswald, Edward's body was found to be incorrupt when it was disinterred (which was taken as a miraculous sign). The body was taken to the Shaftesbury Abbey, a nunnery with royal connections which had been endowed by King Alfred the Great and where Edward and Æthelred's grandmother Ælfgifu had spe…
• House of Wessex family tree
• List of Catholic saints