Fatal Vespers
Encyclopedia
The Fatal Vespers is the name given to a disaster
in Hunsdon House, Blackfriars, London, at the time the French ambassador's house.
and William Whittingham, two Jesuits.
While Drury was preaching the great weight of the crowd in the old room suddenly snapped the main summer-beam of the floor, which instantly crashed in and fell into the room below. The main beams there also snapped and broke through to the ambassador's drawing-room over the gate-house, a distance of twenty-two feet. Part of the floor, being less crowded, stood firm, and the people on it cut a way through a plaster wall into a neighbouring room. The two Jesuits, were killed on the spot. About ninety-five persons lost their lives, while many others sustained serious injuries.
The bigotry of the times led some people to regard this calamity as a judgment on the Catholics, "so much was God offended with their detestable idolatrie
".
Since the date of the event was in the new-style calendar 5 November, several commentators perceived the event as divine vengeance for the Gunpowder Plot
.
Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...
in Hunsdon House, Blackfriars, London, at the time the French ambassador's house.
Event
On the afternoon Sunday, 5 November (N.S.) 1623 about three hundred persons assembled in an upper room at the French ambassador's residence, Hunsdon House, Blackfriars, for the purpose of participating in a religious service by Robert DruryRobert Drury (Jesuit)
-Biography:Drury, born in Middlesex in 1587, was son of William Drury, D.C.L., judge of the prerogative court , and his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk, a relative of Father Robert Southwell the poet...
and William Whittingham, two Jesuits.
While Drury was preaching the great weight of the crowd in the old room suddenly snapped the main summer-beam of the floor, which instantly crashed in and fell into the room below. The main beams there also snapped and broke through to the ambassador's drawing-room over the gate-house, a distance of twenty-two feet. Part of the floor, being less crowded, stood firm, and the people on it cut a way through a plaster wall into a neighbouring room. The two Jesuits, were killed on the spot. About ninety-five persons lost their lives, while many others sustained serious injuries.
The bigotry of the times led some people to regard this calamity as a judgment on the Catholics, "so much was God offended with their detestable idolatrie
Idolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...
".
Since the date of the event was in the new-style calendar 5 November, several commentators perceived the event as divine vengeance for the Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...
.