suspected of religion. And certayne it is that this Pilcher is gone
this year from thence to Rhems, looking daily for Bagshaw as he
did report to one Caesar," &c. (See Douay Diaries, Appendix, p. 363.)
Indeed the fact is stated positively in a letter written by one of
Father Persons' brothers giving an account of his early life, in which
the writer says, " So that he (Father Persons) had in Balliol College
and Hall more than thirty scholars under him, whereof many
have proved Catholics and some priests, as Mr. Briant, priest
and martyr, and Mr. Powell and others." (Foley, Records S.J.
vol. vi. p. 679.)

2 More, Historia Provincia Anglican^ Soc. Jesu, p. 40.

AA II.



4 o2 BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT

1578, deacons on March the i8th, and priests on
the 2gth of the same month, Holy Saturday ; all
the ordinations being at Cambrai. Holtby started
for the English Mission on the 26th of February,
1579 ; Blessed Alexander on the 3rd of the following
August.

He laboured at first in his own county of
Somersetshire. Father Persons speaks of him as
"a priest of the greatest zeal." He reconciled
Persons' father to the Church, and this fact probably
led to the great intimacy and affection between
them for Father Persons says of the time they
were both in England " he never willingly left my
side." 1 It was perhaps the desire to be near him
that led him to choose for his lodging the house
where he was taken. 2

On his arrest on the 28th of April, 1581, he was,
after a short examination by a magistrate, committed
a prisoner to the Counter. Some years later
Father Garnet speaks of the Counter in one of his
letters as " a very evil prison." 3 Blessed Alexander
was not many days there, but they were days of great
suffering. The persecutors, who had so narrowly
missed capturing Father Persons, and who were
tolerably sure Briant could tell them his where-

1 Simpson's Campion, p. 202.

J One Gilbert Body was taken in Briant's chamber, and was
sent to Bridewell, where he was flogged. (Pollen, Acts, p. 54.)

3 Father Morris's Life of Father John Gerard, p. 186. There
were two prisons of the name in London the Counter in the
Poultry, close to the parish Church of St. Mildred, and the Counter
in Wood Street. They were under the respective authority of the
two sheriffs. There was also a Counter in Southwark, adjoining
the parish Church of St. Margaret.



BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT 403

abouts, were determined to stick at nothing to
extract information from him. Strict orders were
given to the gaolers that he should see nobody ;
that if any persons came to see him they should
at once be arrested ; and that he was to be entirely
deprived of food and drink. " Who in such order
continued," says the original account of Dr. Allen,
followed by Challoner, " until he was almost famished.
In fine, by friendship, or what means I know not,
he got a pennyworth of hard cheese, and a little
broken bread, with a pint of strong beer, which
brought him into such an extreme thirst that he
essayed to catch with his hat the drops of rain
from the house eaves, but could not reach them." 1
The deprivation of food and drink lasted for two
days and nights. 2

After six days at the Counter nothing had been
gained, and it was determined to try still sharper
methods. On the day after the Ascension, that
is May the 5th, Blessed Alexander was removed
to the Tower. His Acts say 3 "he verily thought

1 Brief e Historic, p. 87.

2 Lord Burghley in his tract, A Declaration of the favourable
dealing of her Majestie's Commissioners, &c., admits this torture by
starvation. " A horrible matter is made of the starving of one
Alexander Briant, how he should eat clay out of the walls, gathered
water to drink out of the droppings of houses." He contends that
he suffered it " wilfully of extreme impudent obstinacy," because
he would not write, no doubt for fear his writing would be the
means of compromising others ; and throws the blame on him for
" persisting so in his curst heart by almost two days and two
nights." Hallam says of this tract that " those who revere the
memory of Lord Burghley must blush for this pitiful apology."
(Constitutional History, i. p. 148.)

3 Briefe Historic, p. 87.



4 o 4 BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT

he would have been utterly famished, and therefore
carried with him a little piece of his hard cheese,
which his keeper in searching him found about
him, but the martyr humbly entreated him not to
take it from him." From this time he was given
his allowance of food and drink, but only that he
might undergo a far fiercer trial. The Brtefe
Historic says of him that " these torments and the
man's constancy are comparable truly to the old,
strange sufferings of the renowned martyrs of the
primitive Church, . . . which he could never have
borne by human strength, if God had not given him
His singular and supernatural grace."

There is still extant the order of the Council,
dated the 3rd of May, 1581, directing Sir Owen
Hopton, the Lieutenant of the Tower, Dr. Hammond,
and the notorious Norton, " the rack-master," to
examine " a certain seminary priest or Jesuit
naming himself Bryant, . . . and if he shall obsti-
nately refuse to confess the truth, then to put him
unto the torture, and by the pain and terror of
the same to wring from him the knowledge of such
things as shall appertain." 1 It was, of course,

1 MSS. Lansd. 1162, fol. yb. Printed by Dasent, xiii. 37, 38.
" 3rd Mail, 1581.

" [Present] Lord Admiral, Earl of Bedford, Mr. Treasurer,
Mr. Vicechancellor, Mr. Secretary.

" A letter to the Lieutenant of the Tower, that whereas there
is presently remaining in the Counter in Wood Street a seminary
priest naming himself Bryant, lately apprehended and committed
to that prison, their Lordships think good to have him removed to
the Tower, thereto be further examined, and have him required to
send for the said Bryant unto the Counter, and to receive him into
his custody to remain close prisoner, and be examined from time



BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT 405

with a view to carrying out these instructions, that
the martyr was removed to the Tower. Two days
after his transfer he was brought before the
three commissioners, who began by tendering to
him an oath to answer all their questions. The
holy priest was, of course, unable to answer
those which would have compromised others,
"and because he would not confess," says the
Brief e Historic, " where he had seen Father

to time, according to such direction as he shall receive in that
behalf from their Lordships, &c.

" A letter unto the Lieutenant of the Tower, Dr. Hammond, and
Thomas Norton, gent., that whereas there hath been of late appre-
hended among others a certain seminary priest or Jesuit, naming
himself Bryant, about whom there was taken certain books and
writings carrying matter of high treason, and is (as may in good
likelihood be conjectured) able to discover matters of good moment
for her Majesty. It was therefore thought good that he should be
for that purpose substantially examined upon such interrogatories as
may be framed and gathered out of the said books and writings,
which their Lordships send them herewith, for the doing whereof
especial choice was made of them three, and thereby authority given
unto them for the drawing the interrogatories and the examining
the said Bryant accordingly. And if he shall refuse by persuasion
to confess such things as they shall find him able to reveal unto
them, then they shall offer unto him the torture in the Tower ;
and in case upon the sight thereof he shall obstinately refuse
to confess the truth, then shall they put him unto the torture,
and by the pain and terror of the same wring from him the
knowledge of such things as shall appertain. And for the rest that
were apprehended with him, as others that upon his examination
shall be touched in like degree, and by their endeavours appre-
hended, their Lordships pray them to examine them and every of
them, by such convenient ways and means as by them shall be
thought convenient and fit for the trying out of the matters where-
with they shall be severally charged. And what they shall find by
their said examinations they are prayed to certify unto their
Lordships in writing, that thereupon such further orders may be
taken with them as shall appertain," &c.



406 BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT

Persons, how he was maintained, where he had
said Mass, and whose confessions he had heard,
they caused needles to be thrust under his nails,
whereat Mr. Brian was not moved at all, but with
a constant mind and pleasant countenance, said
the Psalm Miserere, desiring God to forgive his
tormentors ; whereat Dr. Hammond stamped and
stared, as a man half beside himself, saying, ' What
a thing is this ? If a man were not settled in his
religion, this were enough to convert him.' " His
fellow-prisoner, John Hart, who had the account
of his sufferings from himself, shortly before his
martyrdom, writes: "Alexander Briant, a priest,
was brought into the Tower from another prison,
where he had almost died of thirst, and was loaded
with most heavy shackles. Then sharp needles
were thrust under his nails to force him to disclose
where he had seen Father Persons, which, however,
with unshaken resolution, he refused." 1 This
torture is also described in a letter from Father
Persons written early in August, 1581, and on the
27th of the same month it is recorded in the Douay
Diaries. It was openly stated in the True Report
of the Martyrdom of M. Campion, M. Sherwin, and
M. Bryan, 2 in the December following, and by the
Briefe Historic in 1582. Moreover, the defence
offered by Norton, to which we shall return imme-

1 Diary in the Tower, [April] 27, and May 6, 1581. There is an
earlier record still in the letter from a prisoner in the Tower, R.O.
Domestic, vol. cxlix. n. 61, of which a translation is printed in Foley,
Records S.J. vol. ii. p. 160.

3 Sander, De Schismate Anglicano, lib. iii. Edit. 1628, p. 319;
Douay Diaries, p. 181 ; True Report, sig. D. 3.



BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT 407

diately, is quite inconclusive, and rather confirms
than invalidates the statements of the Catholics.

It does not appear that any other martyr except
Briant was tortured by pricking but the punish-
ment was not unfrequently applied to witches, who
seemed insensible to other pain. This perhaps
explains its infliction here. If Briant had remained
unmoved by previous sufferings, it would have
seemed not unnatural to the rack-master to say
that this was due to conjuration, and then to apply
the needles.

Thirteen questions to be proposed to Briant,
regarding the names of Catholics, the whereabouts
of Persons and Campion, &c., are extant, 1 but the
martyr's answers seem to have perished. The
Government, however, published such " short
extracts" from a later examination, on the depos-
ing powers of the Pope, as would be most likely to
raise odium against the sufferer. 2 The " extracts "
are the following :

" Alexander Briant. He is content to affirm
that the Queen is his sovereign lady : but he will
not affirm that she is so lawfully, and ought to be
so, and to be obeyed by him as her subject if the
Pope declare or command the contrary. And he
saith that this question is too high and dangerous
for him to answer. The 6th of May, 1581. Before
Owen Hopton, Kt., John Hammond, Thos. Norton.

1 R.O. Domestic, vol. cxlvii. n. 97, printed below in the life
of Kirby, and in Foley, vol. iv. p. 348.

2 Declaration of undutiful affection of Edmund Campion and other
condemned priests (1582), reprinted in Cobbett's State Trials, vol. i.
p. 1078, and Tierney-Dodd, vol. i. p. n.



4 o8 BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT

" Whether the Pope hath authority to withdraw
from obedience to her Majesty he knoweth not.

"ALEXANDER BRIANT.
"The 7th of May, 1581."

After this the martyr, as Hart records, "was
thrown into the pit," which he describes in the
preface to his diary as " a subterraneous cave,
twenty feet deep, without light." He remained
there eight days and was then drawn out to be taken
to the rack-chamber.

Here, says the Brief e Historic, 1 " he was, even to
the disjointing of his body, rent and torn upon the
rack, because he would not confess where Father
Persons was, where the print was, and what books
he had sold, and so was returned to his lodgings
for the time. Yet the next day following, notwith-
standing the great distemperature and soreness of
his whole body, his senses being dead and his blood
congealed (for this is the effect of racking), he was
brought to the torture again, and there stretched
with greater severity than before ; insomuch that
supposing with himself they would pluck him in
pieces, ... he put on the armour of patience,
resolving to die rather than to hurt any creature
living, and having his mind raised in contemplation
of Christ's bitter Passion. He swooned away, so
that they were fain to sprinkle cold water on his
face to revive him again : yet they released no part
of his pain.

1 Pp. 87, 88.



BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT 409

" And here Norton, because they could get
nothing of him, asked him whether the Queen
were supreme head of the Church of England or
not ? To this he said, ' I am a Catholic, and I
believe in this as a Catholic should do.' ' Why,'
said Norton, ' they say the Pope is.' ' And so say
I,' answered Mr. Briant. Here also the Lieutenant
used railing and reviling words, and bobbed him
under the chin and slapped him on the cheeks after
an uncharitable manner; and all the commissioners
rose up and went away, giving commandment to
leave him so all night. At which when they saw he
was nothing moved, they willed he should be taken
from the torment, and sent him again to Wales-
boure ; l where, not able to move hand or foot or
any part of his body, he lay in his clothes fifteen
days together, without bedding, in great pain and
anguish."

Of these terrible scenes, Norton himself admitted
to Walsingham, as we shall see later, that he had
used the inhuman threat that the martyr "should be
made a foot longer than God made him ; " that " he
was therewith nothing moved;" that he was "racked
more than any of the rest, yet he stood still with
express refusal " to comply with the requirements
of his persecutors. 2 And Dr. Allen in a letter to
Father Agazzari a few weeks later (the 23rd of June,
1581), says " he laughed at his tormentors, and
though nearly killed by the pain, said, ' Is -this all

1 A dungeon, the locality of which is uncertain, perhaps in the
now destroyed Coleharbour Tower, perhaps under the White Tower.

2 See the extract from his letter below.



4 io BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT

you can do ? If the rack is no more than this,
let me have a hundred more for this cause.' " l

Indeed in his first racking the martyr was mira-
culously preserved from the sense of pain during
part of the time. Hart says, " I heard afterwards
from his own mouth, a little before his martyrdom,
that he felt no pain whatever when his body was
extended to the utmost, nor when his tormentors
with savage barbarity endeavoured to inflict upon
him the greatest pain." 2 He gave a more exact
account of this grace in a letter to the Jesuit
Fathers in England. 3

In this long letter, which we quote verbatim
from the Briefe Historic, he begs for admission into
the Society with touching earnestness and humility.

" Yet now, since I am by the appointment of
God, deprived of liberty, so as I cannot any longer
employ myself in this profitable exercise, my desire
is eftsoons revived, my spirit waxeth fervent hot, and
at the last I have made a vow and promise to God,
not rashly (as I hope) but in the fear of God, not
to any other end, than that I might thereby, more
devoutly and more acceptably serve God, to my
more certain salvation, and to a more glorious
triumph over my ghostly enemy, I have made a
vow (I say), that whensoever it shall please God
to deliver me (so that once at the length it like Him)

1 Knox, Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen, p. 95, and R.O.
Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. cxlix. nn. 51, 52.
a Diary in the Tower, May 6.
3 Briefe Historic, pp. 89 92.



BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT 411

I will, within one year then next following, assign
myself wholly to the Fathers of the Society, and
that (if God inspire their hearts to admit me) I will
gladly, and with exceeding great joy, thoroughly
and from the bottom of my heart, give up and
surrender all my will to the service of God and in
all obedience under them.

" This vow was to me a passing great joy and
consolation in the midst of all my distresses and
tribulations. And therefore with greater hope to
obtain fortitude and patience, I drew near to the
throne of his Divine Majesty, with the assistance
of the blessed and perpetual Virgin Mary and of all
the saints. And I hope verily this came of God,
for I did it even in the time of prayer, when
methought my mind was settled upon heavenly
things. For thus it was.

" The same day that I was first tormented on
the rack before I came to this place, giving my
mind to prayer, and commending myself and all
mine to our Lord, I was replenished and filled up
with a kind of supernatural sweetness of spirit ; and
even while I was calling upon the most holy Name
of Jesus, and upon the blessed Virgin Mary (for
I was in saying the Rosary), my mind was cheerfully
disposed, well comforted, and readily prepared and
bent to suffer and endure those torments, which even
then I most certainly looked for. At the length my
former purpose came into my mind, and therewithall
a thought coincidently fell upon me to ratify that
now by vow, which before I had determined. When
I had ended my prayers, I resolved these things



4 i2 BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT



in my mind deeply, and with reason (as well as I
could) I did debate and discuss them thoroughly.
I judged it good and expedient for me, I accom-
plished my desire, I put forth my vow and promise
freely and boldly, with the condition aforesaid.

" Which act (me thinketh) God himself did
approve and allow by-and-by. For in all my
afflictions and torments, He of His infinite goodness
mercifully and tenderly did stand by and assist me,
comforting me in my trouble and necessity ; deliver-
ing my soul from wicked lips, from the deceitful
tongue, and from the roaring lions, then ready
gaping for their prey.

" Whether this that I say be miraculous or no,
God knoweth. But true it is, and thereof my
conscience is a witness before God. And this I say,
that in the end of the torture, though my hands arid
feet were violently stretched and racked, and my
adversaries fulfilled their wicked lust, in practising
their cruel tyranny upon my body, yet notwith-
standing I was without sense and feeling well-nigh
of all grief and pain ; and not so only, but as it were
comforted, eased and refreshed of grievous [ness] of
the torture bypast. I continued still with perfect
and present senses in quietness of heart and tran-
quillity of mind ; which thing when the commis-
sioners did see, they departed, and in going forth of
the door they gave orders to rack me again the next
day following, after the same sort. Now when I
heard them say so, it [came into] my mind by-and-
by, and I did verily believe and trust, that with the
help of God, I should be able to bear and suffer it



BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT



patiently. In the meantime (as well as I could) I
did muse and meditate upon the most bitter passion
of our Saviour and how full of innumerable pains it
was. And whiles I was thus occupied, methought
that my left hand was wounded in the palm, and
that I felt the blood run out, but in very deed there
was no such thing, nor any other pains than that
which seemed to be in my hand.

" Now then that my suit and request may be
well known unto you, for so much as I am out of
hope in short time to recover and enjoy my former
liberty, so as I might personally speak unto you ;
(and whether happily I shall once at length speak
unto you in this world no mortal man doth know)
in the mean season I humbly submit myself unto
you, and (suppliantly kneeling) I beseech you to do
and dispose for me and of me, as shall seem good
to your wisdom. And with an humble mind most
heartily I crave that (if it may be in my absence)
it would please you to admit me into your Society
and to register and enroll me among you, that so
with humble men I may have a sense and feeling
of humility, with devout men I may sound out aloud
the lauds and praises of God, and continually render
thanks to him for his benefits ; and then after being
aided by the prayers of many, I may run more safety
to the mark which I shoot at, and without peril
attain to the prize that is promised.

" As I am not ignorant that the snares and wiles
of our ancient enemy are infinite, for he is the sly
serpent which lieth in the shadow of woods, winding,
whirling and turning about many ways ; and with



4 i4 BLESSED ALEXANDER B RIANT

his wiles and subtle shifts he attempts marvellously
to delude and abuse the souls of the simple which
want a faithful guide ; insomuch as it is not without
cause that we are admonished to try the spirits if
they be of God.

" To you, therefore, because you are spiritual,
and accustomed to this kind of conflict, I commend
all this business, beseeching you even by the bowels
of God's mercy that you would vouchsafe to direct
me with your counsel and wisdom. And if in your
sight it seem profitable, for more honour to God,
more commodity to his Church, and eternal salva-
tion to my soul, that I be preferred to that Society
of the most holy Name of Jesus, then presently
before God, and in the court of my conscience, I do
promise obedience to all and singular Rectors and
Governors established already, or to be hereafter
established ; and likewise to all rules or laws
received in the Society to the uttermost of my
power, and so far as God doth give me grace ; God
is my witness, and this my own handwriting shall
be a testimony hereof in the day of Judgment.

" As for the health of my body you have no
cause to doubt, for now well near I have recovered
my former strength and hardness. By God's help
I wax every day stronger than [the] other.

"Thus, in all other things commending myself
to your prayers, I bid you farewell in our Lord,
carefully expecting what you think good to deter-
mine of me. Vale."

The reader may wonder how this letter, written



BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT 415

by a close prisoner in the Tower, found its way to
those for whom it was destined. Father Persons
has answered this question. In his tract, De Per-
secutione Anglicana, 1 he tells us that an opportunity
was found by certain Catholics, during the disputa-
tions held by Blessed Edmund Campion in the
Tower, to visit the other prisoners for the Faith
who were concealed in that gloomy fortress. The
disputations were held in public, and probably the
golden key was freely used to obtain access to the
dungeons, where the confessors of Christ were
languishing. In this way our martyr not only
obtained the necessary writing materials, but was
enabled to deliver his letter into safe hands. No
doubt in this way also the priests were supplied with
the means of offering the Holy Sacrifice, for the
corporal, on which Briant and his companions said
Mass, is still preserved.

Father Persons says that he prints the letter to
show that the hand of the Lord is not shortened,
and that He still comes to the help of His confessors
in their need, and is with them even in the dense
darkness of their dungeons.

We have still something to add about Norton's
atrocious cruelty. When it became known, an
outcry was raised, and the Government was shamed
into putting him into prison for a few days, though
apparently on some other plea, to make believe that
they were not responsible for him. To this occasion
we are indebted for his avowal and confirmation
of the facts related as to the martyr's torture.

1 First Edition, published in 1581, p. 98.



416 BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT

Walsingham sent him a tract about the late
martyrs, 1 upon which he wrote the following attempt
at a defence of himself. 2

" I find in the whole book only one place
touching myself, fol. ult. pa. 2. ' One (meaning
Briant) whom Mr. Norton, the rack-master, if he be
not misreported, vaunted in the court to have pulled
one good foot longer than ever God made him, and
yet in the midst of all he seemed to care nothing,
and therefore out of doubt, said he, he had a devil
within him.' Surely I never said in that form, but