| Description | Cataloguing in progress. Please contact the Jesuits in Britain Archives for further information if you are interested in consulting the records.
This collection contains the papers created and collected by the individuals involved in the Cause of the Forty English and Welsh Martyrs of the Reformation, who were canonised in 1970, and also in the beatifications of a further 85 English and Welsh martyrs in 1987, namely Frs James Walsh SJ, Philip Caraman SJ, and Clement Tigar SJ, and Patrick Barry, Secretary. They include research files, correspondence including about the promotion of the Cause, news bulletins, and financial documents. It also includes the archives of the Vice-Postulators office, which contains many transcripts and papers on the English and Welsh Martyrs, collected by in particular Frs John Morris SJ, John Pollen SJ, & Charles Newdigate SJ, who held the office respectively in 1874-93, 1900-23, and 1923-37. |
| Admin_History | The Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation are lay and Religious men and women executed under treason legislation in the English Reformation, between 1534 and 1680, and recognised as martyrs by the Roman Catholic Church. On 25 February 1570, Pope Pius V's "Regnans in Excelsis" bull excommunicated Elizabeth I, and any who obeyed her. This papal bull also required all Roman Catholics to rebel against the English Crown as a matter of faith. In response, legislation was enacted in 1571 making it treasonable to be under the authority of the Pope, including being a Jesuit, being Roman Catholic or harbouring a Roman Catholic priest. The standard penalty for all those convicted of treason at the time was execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
In recognition of the men and women dying for their faith in England, Pope Gregory XIII, in the 1580s, made a series of concessions relating to the Martyrs: their relics could be used to consecrate altars, a Te Deum could be publicly sung on the receipt of the news of their martyrdoms, and their pictures with their names attached could be placed in the church of the English College, Rome for veneration.
The first moves to promote canonisation of the English and Welsh Martyrs were instituted by Pope Urban VIII as early as 1642, however the investigation process was hampered by the difficulty of collecting evidence to prove the martyrdom due to continuing persecution and the Civil War. Among the important works created at this time was Dr Richard Smith, Bishop of Chalcedon’s catalogue of Martyrs which he submitted to Rome in 1628, and the body of transcriptions collated by Fr Christopher Grene SJ (1629-1697), which sought to preserve the records of the sufferings of Catholics during the time of persecution, including detailed lists of those who died in various prisons around the country. In the 18th century, the work of Bishop Smith was updated, amplified and published by the Bishop Richard Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London District. Challoner’s Memoirs of Missionary Priests became the basis of the records of the restoration of the Martyrs’ Cause when it was revived in 1855 and taken up by Fr John Morris SJ (1826-1893) following the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy.
A formal Ordinary Process (a judicial enquiry instituted by Cardinal Manning acting on behalf of all the English hierarchy in virtue of his “ordinary” jurisdiction as Archbishop of Westminster) was held in London, June to September 1874, in which 360 names were submitted to the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR). The Fathers of the London Oratory gathered together a body of evidence in a form acceptable to Rome, and Pope Leo XIII introduced the Cause of 254 Martyrs. 54 were beatified ‘equipollently’, i.e. without executing the ordinary process due to their long veneration, on 29 December 1886, followed by nine others on 13 May 1895. These two groups corresponded with the Martyrs whose images were depicted at the English College, their veneration being judged to constitute an immemorial cult. In 1923 Cardinal Francis Bourne OP, Archbishop of Westminster, resumed the process and on 15 December 1929 Pope Pius XI beatified a further 136 Martyrs. Although 241 had been submitted, the remainder were permitted the title ‘Venerable’. Except for the special case of Thomas More and John Fisher, canonised in 1935, it was another 35 years before any of the Martyrs were canonised.
In the 1950s the English and Welsh hierarchy decided once more to resume the Martyrs’ Cause, but with just a small group. Initially, the Vice-Postulators presented a group of 12 Martyrs for canonisation: 4 seminary priests, 4 religious, and 4 lay persons who died in the Elizabethan persecution, but this was deemed not representative enough. The Promoter-General of the Faith had emphasised that there must be evidence of a cultus for each of the Martyrs whose names were on the list and a reputation for answer to prayer. The list of Martyrs was increased to 20. Then, individuals put forward to represent the Carthusians, Bridgettines, Augustinians, and the Dioceses of Cardiff, Menevia, Shrewsbury and Northampton brought the number up to 33. Cardinal William Godfrey, Archbishop of Westminster, suggested that the list be limited to 40, and the remaining seven were chosen from the Martyrs depicted at the English College, Rome.
The names of the Forty Martyrs were submitted in December 1960 to the Holy See, which accepted the group as forming one Cause. Before that date reports of many favours and cures attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Martyrs of England and Wales had been brought to the attention of the hierarchy and the authorities in Rome. Once the group of 40 names was known there was an official and intense nationwide campaign of prayer and an appeal that favours granted through the intercession of the Forty Blessed Martyrs should be sent to the Office of the Vice-Postulation at 31 Farm St, the former Writers’ House. As a result, the Pope, Paul VI, signified that he was prepared to go ahead with the canonisation on the basis of one miracle. The canonisation took place in St Peter’s Basilica on 25 October 1970.
100 martyrs had been omitted from those who had been proposed for beatification in the 1920s, along with 14 of those postponed by the special commission, 116 martyrs in all. Further research was carried out on these martyrs and this led to the beatification of 85 martyrs, executed between 1584 and 1679, by Pope John Paul II, 22 November 1987. |