A great Jesuit - in the days when the Society of Jesus was a great order



                                                                      Fr Henry Morse
                                                                   1st February 1645

I had occasion to visit a Jesuit website this week and was not a little knocked back by the photographs of priests of the order - not a clerical collar in sight!

It seems rather sad that, after receiving the vocational call and undergoing years of study and sacrificing so many of life's comforts, a priest should discard his 'badge of office' to appear as an ordinary layman.

St Henry Morse SJ did not wear a dog collar either but, the times in which he lived were somewhat different, as were the style of clothes worn by a Catholic priest. But I somehow believe that this man, if he lived today, would not walk around wearing a shirt and a tie but the clerical black.

Interestingly, this website carried a history of the order in England and Wales and made much of their priests through the years but one of their greats, Fr Clement Tigar, late of this world and Campion house in Osterley, was missing.

Was it because this quiet man was a traditionalist I wonder?

But back to Fr Morse, born into the Protestant faith in 1595 in rural Suffolk.

What follows now is Fr Morse's statement from the scaffold at Tyburn, uttered as preparations were made for him to be hanged, drawn and quartered on February 1st 1645.

It is a most moving statement and one that, in these troublesome times for the Faith, we can draw a great deal of comfort from:

"I am come hither to die for my religion, for that religion which is professed by the Catholic Roman Church, founded by Christ, established by the Apostles, propagated through all ages by a hierarchy always visible to this day, grounded on the testimonies of Holy Scriptures, upheld by the authority of the Fathers and Councils, out of which, in fine, there can be no hope of salvation.

Time was when I was a Protestant, being then a student of the law in the Inns of Court in town, till, being suspicious of the truth of my religon, I went abroad into Flanders, and upon full conviction I renounced my former errors and was reconciled to the Church of Rome, the mistress of all Churches.

Upon my return to England I was committed to prison for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, and banished.
After even years I returned to England as a priest, and devoted myself to the poor and the plague-stricken".

"No self-glorification here" interrupted the Sheriff,

"I will glory you only in God" continued the martyr, "who has pleased to allow me to seal the Catholic faith with my blood, and I pray that my death may atone for the sins of this nation, for which end and in testimony of the one true Catholic faith confirmed by miracles now as ever, I willing die"

                                   St Henry Morse SJ  - Ora pro nobis!
               And pray also that the Jesuit order returns to its greatness!

Posted by Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow



Exorcist dies for the faith!

The Angel St Giles High Street, aka 'The Resurrection Gate' - next stop Tyburn!

The Reformation period produced many great men and women who suffered for the faith. It was a time when the ‘recrudescence of evil’ was manifest throughout the country and beyond and it remains a mystery that so many young men courageously stepped forward to undergo seminary training in preparation for the priesthood, knowing that they were committing themselves to an almost certain death.

One such was Father Robert Dibdale*, brought up in the English heartland of Warwickshire, went to Douai and was ordained  in Rheims Cathedral on March 31^st 1584.

Five months later he set sail for the English Mission and, in the course of the next two years he became a skilled exorcist; a calling much in demand at the time.

Here is a brief account of his all too short ministry.

“….at Sir George Peckham’s, Denham, near Uxbridge, and other places, by the virtue and power that Christ has bequeathed to the ministers of His Church, the martyr showed his mastery over evil spirits.

They were forced to leave the bodies of the possessed, and to bring from their mouths pieces of metal and other things which could never have entered a human body.

In obedience to the prayers and exorcisms of the Church, they declared, to their own confusion, the virtue of the sign of the cross, holy water and relics, both of the ancient saints and of those suffering in England in those days for the Catholic faith.

These manifestations were slighted indeed by some incredulous and hard-hearted heretics; yet others who were not so prejudiced by passion, but more reasonable, were convinced by what they saw, and thereupon renounced their errors.

Father Dibdale was condemned to die for his priestly character with BB. Lowe and Adams, driven to Tyburn and there hanged, drawn and quartered, October 8, 1586”

*also listed as Richard Dibdale (Debdale)

Blessed Robert Dibdale, John Adams and John Lowe

ORA PRO NOBIS!

Posted by Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow

Today's feast - the Franciscan strangled on the King's orders

               Church of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Chideock, Dorset


The Venerable Anthony Brooksby (or Brookby or, even, Brorbey) was a theological lecturer at Magdalen College, Oxford.
He was critical of the actions of Henry VIII and even more so of his dissolute style of living. As a result he was arrested and thrown into prison where he was put on the rack.

This is an account of his sufferings:_

"...Here he was placed on the rack in order to induce him to retract his words. But he bore all the tortures with wonderful courage and constancy, and, far from yielding a single point, he only expressed an ardent desire to suffer yet more cruel torments for the love of God.
So unusually barbarous was his racking that every joint in his body was dislocated, and he could not move or even raise his hands to his mouth...."

He was fed and cared for by an old woman (presumed to be on the prison payroll) for several weeks until the King signed the warrant for his execution.
Presumably, because he was still virtually helpless due to his tortures they sent the executioner to his cell where he strangled the Friar in his bed with the cord from his habit.

                 Venerable Anthony Brooksby - Ora pro nobis!

Posted by Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow