PROCESS OF THE ENGLISH MARTYRS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 August 1921, Page 37

PROCESS OF THE ENGLISH MARTYRS

A memorial has been presented to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster by a committee of theologians, praying that the Holy See. should be approached with a view of holding the Apostolic Process for the beatification of the English martyrs. The 252, Venerabili whose process is being urged, were put to death by the civil power in England, under the old harsh penal laws. The last to suffer death under these laws was Archbishop Plunket of Armagh, who was executed at Tyburn in July, 1681, and who was solemnly beatified by Pope Benedict XV, last year. , An essential part of the judicial functions of the Apostolic process is the compilation of the Acts of the Martyrs, or documentary records of their life and death, in which the most minute proofs of the claims to martyrdom must be qualified beyond all ■ doubt. The majority of these confessors suffered death in London, and particularly at Tyburn Fields, which will assign to the 'province of Westminster the task of providing 142 acts. Next in numerical importance were those condemned to death by the council of the North, which sat at York: 74 of these Acts will thus be assigned to the Liverpool province. Birmingham will examine the Acts of 28 confessors who suffered in the Western Country, and Cardiff the eight’ martyrs of Wales. Of the known martyrs whose records arc preserved, no fewer than 136 were alumni of Cardinal Allen’s College at Douai. Fifty-two were members of the University of Oxford and 11 of Cambridge. The English College in Rome sent 34 of its alumni who died in England, and from the English College at Valladolid there came 23; from St. Omer 16 and 7 from Seville. The Apostolic process is careful judicial process, carned out with the dignity of a religious ceremony. All the evidence for the martyrs must bo submitted in writing, and for many months these documents are subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny. In the Roman Court not only must the fact of martyrdom be established beyond ail doubt, but it must bo shown conclusively that while the persecutors always strove to hide their true motive under some specious plea, they were really always animated by, hatred of the Catholic religion. ‘