same fate has overtaken a priest [Haile] for having
spoken and written concerning the hfe and govern-
ment of that King. "^ But the sense of the nation
was assuredly, that the true cause of his death,
however complicated by legal phraseology, was his
fidelity to the ancient Faith. The Papal Nuncio in
France saw letters from England dated the 5th of
May, in which all the sufferers were spoken of as
having died for the same cause, i.e., for resisting the
Ro^al Supremacy; and when Chapuys summarized
his first news he used a similar form.^ Chauncy^
most cruellest capital heretic, defacer and treader under foot of
Christ and of His Church, continually applying and minding to
extinct the same. . . . And if thou wilt deeply look upon his life,
thou shalt find it more foul and stinking than a sow, wallowing and
defiling herself in any filthy place; for how great soever he is, he
is fully given to his foul pleasure of the flesh and other voluptuous-
ness. And look how many matrons be in the Court, or given to
marriage, these almost all he hath violated, so often neglecting his
duty to his wife and offending the holy Sacrament of Matrimony,
and now he hath taken to his wife of fornication, this matron Anne,
not only to the highest shame and undoing of himself, but also of
this realm. . . . Three parts of England is against the King. . . .
The Commons see well enough a sufficient cause of rebellion and
insurrection, and truly we of the Church shall never live merrily
until that day come." (Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. 609.) These
words come to us edited by a bitterly hostile hand. Haile, as we
shall see, admitted that he had uttered them, and only pleaded that
ill-health had diminished his responsibility. We may however still
feel sure that a more equitable reporter would have inserted many
qualifying and explanatory clauses, which are now lost to us. The
martyr at first pleaded "Not guilty."
^ Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. 666.
2 Ibid. nn. 726, 786. =* Chauncy, fol. 8".
BLESSED JOHN HAILE
speaks of the seculars (Haile and Feron, though
he does not name them) as having to meet the
same charge as the monks, that is, of having
written or spoken certain things against the King's
Majesty. Some fifty years later, Sander^ bears
witness to the same tradition, and says of Haile,
that " having striven lawfully he obtained the reward
of the heavenly calling," and about the same
time, under the eyes of the Sovereign Pontiff, he
was represented with the other martyrs on the
walls of the Church of the College in Rome. Every-
one indeed who can take a broad view of the
circumstances of the case must come to the
conclusion that Haile really suffered for his religion.
His complaints, however much exaggerated, were
notoriously founded upon fact. They had only been
uttered in private, and that more than a year before.
It was not pretended that the State had actually
suffered any evil consequences because of them.
Yet he was tried and executed in his clerical robes
in company with religious of known sanctity, and
shortly before More and Fisher. What interpreta-
tion were the people meant to put upon all this,
except that excuses were being sought for harassing
the Church, and that no virtue and no ecclesiastical
rank would be of any protection to clerics who
resisted to bend their consciences at the King's
command ?
On their first appearance before the court, 28
April, both Haile and Feron pleaded not guilty ; but
^ Sander, de Schismate, Edit. Lewis, p. ii8. The allusion is to
2 Tim. ii. 5.
BLESSED JOHN HAILE 23
after being remanded, they withdrew their defence,
and pleaded guilty to the indictment. Haile acknow-
ledged the truth of the evidence brought against
him, and " that he had maliciously slandered the
King, Queen, and the Council, for which he asked
the forgiveness of God, the King and Queen Anne,
and will continue sorrowful during his life, which
stands only in the King's will."^
^ Haile's letter to the Council is calendared in Letters and Papers,
vol. viii. n. 567. It is a most pathetic document. The writer was a
sick and aged man, and he evidently felt his position keenly. The
paper is headed with the touching prayer, jfhus Salvator miiiuU
miserere met quia timor mortis contiirbat me. In it he says: "I fell
and hurt my leg at Wyngham, at Allhallowtide was twelvemonth,
and remained till about Candlemas next. On Saturday after Ash
Wednesday I fell into a fervent ague. How long I continued, with
various relapses, the parishioners of Isleworth know, so that I took
not my journey through whole five weeks before Michaelmas last,
and lost ' our Lady's quarter ' ended the midsummer before that
by my sickness. Will nevertheless report as well as I can, with
whom I talked and in what manner of the King's grace. . . . Had
also conversations with Skydmore, with Sir Thomas [Mody] my
priest and with Master Leeke " [these were his accusers], "and
once, I think about two years ago, of the Acts of Parliament made
against Churchmen with the Prior of Hounslow, who offered to
show me a prophecy . . . but we had no leisure to speak together
further, for we only met at the New Inn where Mr. Young, Awnsam
and his wife and others dined with us. . . . And as to Mr. Feron
my wits were so troubled with sickness that I cannot perfectly
remember what he rehearsed. ... I was sick long after, and, being
aged and oblivious, did not see him until we met at the Secretary's
at the Rolls." This letter was written about the 20th of April.
While confessing to the substantial truth of the charges brought
against him by Feron, Leeke, Skydmore, and Mody, Blessed John
Haile " gave as his authority for several of the scandals he had
uttered against the King the name of one of his accusers. He had
conversed with Mr. Skydmore ' concerning the King's marriage and
other behaviours of his bodily lust." . . . We hear nothing," adds
Mr. Gairdner, " of the original reporters of these stories being
24 BLESSED JOHN HAILE
Every good Christian, as death approaches,
desires to make peace with all whom he has offended,
and is glad, as far as truth will permit, to withdraw
all the ungracious words he may have used. So the
Blessed John Haile, who frankly owns that the
fear of death had fallen upon him, asks pardon of
those whom he felt that he had too freely assailed.
His words, however, though uttered at a moment
when he was evidentl}^ most anxious to satisfy the
King, as far as his conscience would permit, convey
no retractation of his opinion as to the irreligious
called to account. Perhaps it was not so much the statement of
facts that was objected to, as the expression of displeasure at them."
(Letters and Papevs, vol. viii. Preface, p. xxix.)
In the preface to the same volume Mr. Gairdner remarks : " The
complaints of individual priests in this volume are no doubt
insignificant in point of number, but we must presume that where
one clergyman spoke out and was informed against, a hundred
viewed the new state of affairs with equal ill-will. Nor were those
who spoke out, as some may be inclined to suppose, mere blind
devotees, whose unprogressive minds could not accommodate
themselves to the spirit of a new era. In fact, it was the general
opinion that royal supremacy plainly and openly avowed, was an
anomaly that could not last." [Ibid. p. xxvii.)
The learned editor further proves that not only Bishop Fisher
and clergymen like Blessed John Haile, but nobles like Lord Darcy,
the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Sandes, " who was beheved to be
the most loyal, as he was undoubtedly one of the most valiant of
Henry's captains," and others begged Chapuys to assure the
Emperor that they hoped he would interfere on behalf of God's
Church. Lord Darcy said there were sixteen hundred of the noble-
men and gentry of the north, who loyal like himself in all matters
that did not touch the conscience, considered the King's conduct an
outrage against God and religion, of which they were anxious to
wash their hands. Gairdner adds: "We need not wonder that
other lords dissembled. The atmosphere of the Court had become
unpleasant even to men not commonly squeamish in mere matters
of morality." [Ibid. p. iv.)
BLESSED JOHN HAlLE
acts of Henry, or as to the invalidity of his union
with Anne. It is true that he gives her the title of
Queen ; but civil rank and honours are at the
disposal of the sovereign, who confers them on
whom he pleases, and who in this instance had thus
distinguished Anne Boleyn, and caused her to be
recognized as Queen by the legislature.
Sentence of high treason was pronounced on
both Haile and Feron. The latter received a
pardon, and perhaps the same mere}' would have
been extended to Haile, had his submission been
deemed satisfactory by the Council. A more glorious
end was before him, and he had the supreme honour
of being numbered as the fourth of that holy
company of martyrs who suffered for the Catholic
Faith at Tyburn on the 4th of May, 1535.
A literal translation of the conclusion of the
contemporary Vatican document, from which we
have quoted before, may well be inserted here.^
" It was a pitiful and strange spectacle, for
certainly it is a long time since men have been
known to suffer death with greater constancy. In
their modesty, look, colour and speech no sign of
human weakness was observed, and [they showed]
great faith and firmness while the execution was
taking place. They preached and they exhorted
the nobles [pyincipi] and the bystanders to do good,
and to live honestly, and to serve the King well
and faithfully, and to pay him obedience in all
things except in those that arc contrary to the
1 Cf. Letters and Papeis, vol. viii. n. 6Ci.
26 BLESSED JOHN HAILE
honour of God and of His Church, for the Scripture
says that it is more necessary to obey God than
men. They protested that they had never been
disobedient in anything, except in this. In what
they had said and done, they had spoken and
protested against his Majesty's orders, as contrary
to the Holy GospeL For this reason they also
accepted death, and said that God was giving them
a great grace in making them die to uphold this
truth, and that in good reason the King could not
be Supreme Head of the Church of England.'"
R. S. and Ed.
III.
THE BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS,
OF THE ORDER OF ST. BRIDGET.
Tyburn, 4 May, 1535.
The Monastery of Syon on the left bank of the
Thames and in the parish of Isleworth was the
rehgious home of the Blessed Richard Reynolds.
It belonged to the Order of St. Bridget, and as it
was the only house of the kind in England and
differed in certain respects from other monastic
institutes, it may be interesting to give a few details
as to its origin and introduction into this country.
The Bridgettine Order derives its name from the
Swedish princess St. Bridget, who on the death of
her husband retired to the Cistercian Monastery of
Alvastra. From there, she went in 1346 to lay the
first stone of the Monastery of Watstein, where
she instituted the Order of Our Saviour, as it was
originally called, under the rule of St. Augustine, to
which were added certain special Constitutions,
communicated to her by revelation, and in due time
approved by the Holy See.
One of the peculiarities of the Bridgettine
Institute, though in earlier times it had been a
28 BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS
common arrangement both on the Continent and in
England, was that houses should be double monas-
teries, as they were called, comprising in strictly
separate enclosures a community of men and one
of women. The object of this plan being mainly
the service of the Church and the spiritual direction
of the nuns, the brethren were much less numerous
than the Sisters, and were subject to the Abbess in
all temporal matters, while in spiritual concerns the
superintendence was in their hands.
St. Bridget fixed the number of nuns in each
house at sixty ; the men were to be thirteen priests,
four deacons and eight lay-brothers.
The Order was introduced into England about
A.D. 1406 by Henry Baron Fitzhugh, who had
accompanied Philippa, daughter of Henry IV. into
Sweden on the occasion of her marriage. He was
so greatly edified by what he heard and saw of the
fervour of the religious, that he made proposals to
the Superiors for a foundation on his own estates.
The project was accepted and sanctioned by the
King and Queen of Sweden, and a small colony soon
reached this country. After being maintained for
several years by Fitzhugh, they were placed by
King Henry V. in a.d. 1415 in his royal foundation
of Syon, which before his death he endowed with
great munificence. For the space of one hundred
and thirty years, from its foundation till its
suppression this holy community had perfectly
maintained the reputation of sanctity and faithful
observance, which it had enjoyed from the first.
Nevertheless being wealthy it was one of the
BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS 29
first to fall under the grasp of the spoiler. The
only alternatives offered were absolute submission to
the will of the tyrant and acknowledgment of his
impious pretensions or complete destruction.
The Blessed Richard Reynolds was the victim
chosen by the King to meet the first assault and
break the courage of his companions, and chosen by
God for the honour of being one of the first band of
martyrs who shed their blood in defence of the
Supremacy of the See of Peter.
We know but little of his early life and nothing
of his parentage, of the place of his birth or of his
elementary education. He was most probably born
about the year 1492, and was a member of Christ's
College, Cambridge, placed there it \vould seem by
Blessed John Fisher, its quasi-founder. It is said
that he was a north-country man, like Fisher
himself; but it is possible that he belonged to the
Devonshire family of Reynolds of Pinhoe, near
Exeter. In 1513 he was made Bachelor of Divinity
and Apostolic Preacher, but the University "grace"
declares that he was even then about to enter
religion.^
He was therefore a member of the Order of
St. Bridget and of the house of Syon for more than
twenty years. He was a man of great learning and
was a Doctor of Theology, familiar with the Latin,
Greek and Hebrew languages; and, what is more,
zealous in the ministry of the Sacrament of Penance
and in the instruction of the people, venerated by all
for the acknowledged sanctity of his life, which was
1 Van Ortroy, Vie de Fisher, p. 49.
30 BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS
manifested, as his contemporary, Dom Chauncy,
adds, in his angehc countenance.
It was clear to those in power, that if such a
man could be induced to admit the new doctrine of
the royal supremacy, numbers of the clergy and
laity would readily follow his example. Whereas,
if his constancy could not be overcome, it was hoped
that the terror of a like fate might deter the less
bold from all opposition. The blessed man was
accordingly arrested on the charge of refusing to
acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of the King.
He was submitted to a preliminary examination,
and on the 2gth of April tried before the Special
Commission, of which the Lord Chancellor Audley
was president, on the indictment, that on the 25th of
April, 27 Henry VHI., at the Tower of London he
had declared "the King our sovereign Lord is not
supreme head in earth of the Church of England." ^
His companions under the same accusation were
the three Carthusian Priors, that of the Blessed
John Haile being different in form. The following
is the contemporary account of the examination of
Blessed Richard Reynolds.- "Among them a D.D.
of Syon Abbey of the Order of St. Bridget was
interrogated by the Chancellor why he had persisted
in an opinion, against which so many lords and
bishops in Parliament and the whole realm had
decreed. He replied, ' I had intended to imitate
our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was questioned
^ Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. 609 (p. 231).
^ " His defence," says Mr. Gairdner, " was singularly calm and
argumentative." (Letters and Papers, vol. viii. p. x.xx.)
BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS 31
by Herod, and not to answer. But since 3'ou
compel me to clear both my own conscience and
that of the bystanders, I say that if we propose
to maintain opinions by proofs, testimonies or
reasons, mine will be far stronger than yours,
because I have all the rest of Christendom in
my favour — I dare even say all this kingdom,
although the smaller part holds with you, for I am
sure the larger part is at heart of our opinion,
although outwardly, partly from fear and partly
from hope, they profess to be of yours.' On this he
was commanded by the Secretary, under the heaviest
penalties of the law, to declare who held with him.
He replied, ' All good men of the Kingdom.' He
added, 'As to proofs of dead witnesses, I have in my
favour all the General Councils, all the historians
(scriptori), the holy doctors of the Church for the
last fifteen hundred years, especially St. Ambrose,
St. Jerome, St. Augustine and St. Gregory; and I
am sure that when the King knows the truth, he
will be very ill pleased, or rather indignant against
certain bishops, who have given him such counsel.' "
He was ordered to speak no more, but merely to
reply to the question, why he had, against the
King's authority, maliciously counselled many
persons within the kingdom not to be of the King's
opinion ? " From the time I was first brought into
court," he said, " I answered as if I were before
God, that I would never declare my opinion for
malice against the King or any other person unless
it was asked me in confession, when I could not refuse
for discharge of my conscience. It is true I am
BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS
much grieved that the King should be in such error.
Therefore I have never said it in pubHc, nor have
ever spoken of it, except as I have said above ; and if
I had not done so, I would do it now, because I am
so bound to God and my conscience ; and in this
I do not mean to offend God, or the Prince, or any-
one." He was ordered to hold his tongue, and he
added, " Since you do not wish me to speak further,
secimdiiin legem vestram jiidicate me.'''
After hearing his sentence, he said with the
greatest constancy, " This is of the things of this
world." He then prayed the judges to obtain for
him two or three da3^s of life, considering that he
had been eight days as if irregular {come irregular)
in the Tower of London, and in those three he
proposed to prepare his conscience and die like a
good religious man. They answered that it was
not in their power, but in the grace of the King.
He then said. Credo videre bona Domini in terra
viventiinn.
Such is the account of the Blessed Martyr's trial,
from the copy in the Public Record Office, of the
original in the Vatican Archives,^ and it is in perfect
agreement with the abridged narrative of Chauncy,
in his Historia aliquot nostri saculi Marty rum (fol. 8'^).
The expression co^ne irregular is not apparently to
be understood of canonical irregularity, but as
implying that during his imprisonment the regularity
of his devotional exercises had been interfered with.
How seriously this condemnation was regarded
by those in authority is shown by a letter from
' Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. 66i.
BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS 33
Cranmer to Cromwell, of the 30th of April, the
following day, in which he says, " Whereas the Prior
of Axholme, named Webster, and Master Reynolds
of Syon are attainted of high treason for offending
against the late statute, made for suppressing the
usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, I marvel at
both, as they are learned men. ... If there is no
other offence alleged against them, it will much
more tend to the conversion of others to convert
their consciences by sincere doctrine, and so for
them to publish it, than to suffer the penalty of the
law. If they were sent to me, I suppose I could do
much in their behalf. Otford, 30 April." ^
It was also felt that the impression produced
by this barbarous act in foreign countries, would
be most prejudicial to Henry's reputation ; and
accordingly after the execution Starkey, one of the
King's chaplains, wrote a long letter to Reginald
Pole, then residing at Padua (?), to represent that
these holy men suffered only for their own obstinacy.
" Three Priors," he says, "and Reynolds of Syon
(affirmed the Supremacy of the Pope) of their super-
stitious knowledge to be to the salvation of man of
necessity, and that this superiority of the Pope was
a sure truth and manifest of the law of God, and
instituted by Christ. . , . Reynolds, whom I have
often heard praised by you, would admit no reason
to the contrary, though divers were sent to them in
prison by the King's commandment to instruct
them. . . . This is the truth, for by Mr. Secretary's
' Letteys and Papers, vol.viii. n. 61G. Cranmer also asserts that
Webster had once " promised never to support that opinion."
D
34 BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS
licence I was admitted to hear Reynolds' reason
and confer with him, and found in him neither strong
reason to maintain his purpose, nor p;reat learninj^
to defend it. I conferred with him gladly, for I was
sorry to see a man of such virtue and learning die
in such a blind and superstitious opinion. But
nothing would avail." ^
The execution of the five martyrs, that is, of
the three Carthusian Priors, tlie Blessed Richard
Reynolds, and the Blessed John Haile, took place at
Tyburn on the 4th of May, 1535, as has been related
in the life of Prior Houghton. The sentence was
carried out to the letter, and no detail of the
barbarous cruelty was omitted. The martyrs were^
executed one by one in the presence of some of the
principal men of the King's Court, and each sufferer
was compelled to witness the torments of those who
preceded him.
A writer in the reign of Queen Mary says :
" Which Reynolds, being the last that was
executed, and seeing them cruelly quartered, and
their bowels taken out, preached unto them and
comforted them, promising them a heavenh'
banquet and supper for their sharp breakfast taken
patiently for their Master's sake. He never changed
colour nor was disquieted, and then in the end lastly
went to die manfully himself." -
Sander adds that the Blessed Richard begged
the people to make continual prayer to God for the
King, that he who was like Solomon in wisdom
' Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. Soi. - Arundel ]\IS. 152, p. 227.
BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS 35
and goodness, when he began to reign, might not,
through the blandishments of 'women, fall away like
Solomon at the end of his life. A circumstance,
which inspired men with great horror at the time
and is mentioned by several writers in terms of
reprobation, was that they underwent no ceremony
of ecclesiastical degradation, as the usage of the
country, no less than the sacred canons required,
but were executed in their religious or ecclesiastical
dress, which in a land hitherto Catholic had always
been regarded with veneration by the people.
As a conclusion to this scanty notice of our
martyr, we give the testimony borne to his sanctity
and many excellences by Cardinal Pole in the third
book of his Defence of the Unity of the Church.
" One of these martyrs I must not pass over
without a special notice, as he was intimately
known to myself. Reynolds was his name, and he
was one who, for the sanctity of his life, might be
compared with the very first of those who profess
the more exact rule of conduct according to the
discipline of Christ, and had moreover, which is a
thing seldom found in those who follow that
profession, a more than common knowledge of all
the liberal arts, a knowledge, too, derived from the
original sources. He was well acquainted with the
three chief languages, in which all liberal learning
is comprised, and, of all the monks in England, was
the only one who had this knowledge. To manifest
to all future time the praises of his sanctity and
doctrine, and to show the height of his piety to
Christ and his charity towards his country, one
36 BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS
thing only seemed to be wanting, that in company
with the other heroes he should, in this time of so
great need, give testimony to the truth with his own
blood. He gave it in truth, and was among the
first to give it, and that with such constancy of
mind, that, as I was told by one who said he was
present at the spectacle and had observed most
attentively all that took place, when he put his neck
within the murderous halter, he seemed rather to be