Subj : August 8th - Bl. John Felton, Martyr To : All From : rich Date : Wed Aug 07 2019 09:33:43 From: rich August 8th - Bl. John Felton, Martyr On February 25, 1569-70, Pope St. Pius V published a bull, "Regnans in excelis ", directed against Queen Elizabeth, who was at the time ostensibly a Catholic.=C2 By it she was declared excommunicate, deprived of the kingdom which she ruled and all her subjects discharged from their allegiance, because she claimed headship of the Church in England, sheltered heretics, oppressed Catholics, and coerced her subjects into heresy and repudiation of the Holy See, contrary to her coronation oath. On the following May 25 citizens of London woke up to find a copy of this bull of excommunication of their sovereign fastened to the door of the bishop of London's house, adjoining St. Paul's cathedral; it had been put there late on the previous night by Mr John Felton, a gentleman of a Norfolk family who lived in Southwark. It was not long before it was discovered who had done the deed. Searchers in the chambers of a well-known Catholic lawyer in Lincoln's Inn found a copy of the bull, arrested the lawyer, and racked him, whereupon he confessed that he had it from Felton.=C2 He was at once seized at Bermondsey, but, although he at once admitted what he had done, he was not brought to trial for three months; he was kept in prison, Newgate and the Tower, and three times racked, in the hope that he would confess to some political intrigue with the Spaniards. But there had been none on his part: he published the bull as a legitimate pontifical censure for the queen's religious offences. When brought to trial at the Guildhall on August 4 he pleaded guilty and openly declared the supremacy of the Holy See. Four days later he was dragged to St. Paul's churchyard; the scaffold was set up opposite the door on which the bull had been posted, and at the sight of the barbarous paraphernalia of execution the martyr was seized with a violent spasm of fear. By an effort of will more violent he overcame it: he pointed at the bishop's door, saying, "the supreme pontiff's letters against the pretended queen were by me exhibited there.=C2 Now I am ready to die for the Catholic faith"; to that queen, as a token of good-will, he sent a valuable ring off his finger; then he knelt and said the Miserere, commended his soul to God, and was cast off. The executioner would in pity have let him hang, but the sheriff ordered that he be cut down alive, and as his heart was torn out, Mrs Salisbury, his daughter, heard him utter the name of Jesus twice. The wife of Bl. John Felton had been a personal friend of the queen, who after her husband's death licensed her to have a priest as chaplain in her house: there are few enough acts of this sort to Elizabeth's credit to make this one worth recording, and the circumstance doubtless had its effect in determining the career of the son, Bl. Thomas Felton, then a babe of two, who 18 years later followed his father to martyrdom. John was equivalently beatified in the decree of 1886.=C2 There is no need here to discuss the question of the bull "Regnans in excelsis"; Bl. John suffered for publishing a canonical act of the Holy See against a supporter of heresy and a persecutor, who proceeded against him for supporting papal ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Whether that act was opportune or justifiable under the circumstances is beside the point.=C2 Popes, even when they are saints, as Pius V was, are not immune from errors of judgement, and it is now the general opinion of Catholics that "Regnans in excelsis" was a belated attempt to exercise a deposing power already in fact a dead letter. For the rest, we have the words of another Pope Pius, to the Academy of the Catholic Religion in 1871 "Though certain popes have sometimes exercised this deposing power in extreme cases, they did so in accordance with the public law of the time and by the agreement of Christian nations, whose reverence for the pope as the supreme judge for Christ extended to his passing even civil judgement on princes and nations. But the present state of affairs is entirely different...No one now thinks any more of the right of deposing princes which the Holy See formerly exercised; and the Supreme Pontiff even less than anyone?" A full account is given in B. Camm, LEM., vol. ii (1905), pp.1-13 cf. Saint Quote: "From contemplation of the Passion the soul will receive a new compassion, a new love, new consolations, and consequently, as it were, a new state of soul, which seems to be a presage and share of eternal glory." --Saint Bonaventure. Bible Quotes: "I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance"=C2 (Luke 15:7) <><><><> Bl. Rupert Mayer's favourite prayer Lord, let happen whatever you will; and as you will, so will I walk; help me only to know your will! Lord, whenever you will, then is the time; today and always Lord, whatever you will, I wish to accept, and whatever you will for me is gain; enough that I belong to you. Lord, because you will it, it is right; and because you will it, I have courage. My heart rests safely in your hands! --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .