Thomas Garnet
Encyclopedia
Saint Thomas Garnet was a Jesuit priest. He is the protomartyr (i.e., the first martyr associated with a place) of Saint Omer
and therefore of Stonyhurst College
. He was executed at Tyburn
and is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
.
, was the superior
of the Jesuits in England
. Richard Garnet, Thomas's father, was at Balliol College, Oxford
, at the time when great severity began to be used against Catholics. His example provided leadership to a generation of Oxford men which was to produce Edmund Campion
, Robert Persons
and other English Catholics.
grammar school and was afterwards a page
to one of the half-brothers of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who were, however, conformists (i.e., conformed to the Anglican
faith).
colleges had been turned over to Protestants, English Catholics had to go to the continent
for their education. Thomas, at age 17, was amongst the first students of Saint Omer's Jesuit College (at Stonyhurst
since 1794) in 1593. By 1595 he was considered fit for Saint Albans, the new English seminary
at Valladolid
. In January he set out from Calais with five others from Calais, John Copley, William Worthington, John Ivreson, James Thomson, and Henry Mompesson.
in disguise under the alias Ottavio Fuscinelli, but misfortunes soon began. After severe weather in the English Channel
, they found themselves obliged to run for shelter to The Downs
, where their vessel was searched by men from some of Queen Elizabeth
's ships, and they were discovered hiding in the hold. They were immediately made prisoners and treated very roughly. They were sent round the Nore
up to London
, and were examined by Charles, second Lord Howard of Effingham, the Lord Admiral.
, where one of those incidents occurred that were so representative of the treacherousness of the Elizabethan age. He met a confessor named James Atkinson who, under torture, had divulged names. He was riven by remorse and terror that he would be tortured again, this time to death and would die unabsolved for his betrayals.
This placed Father Baldwin in a real quandary. Was Atkinson a spy? In appealing for a priest to hear his confession was he angling to trick Baldwin into revealing himself as a priest? In the end he heard Atkinson's confession, whose joy at absolution was luminous. Later, Atkinson would suffer further tortures, and die from this cruelty, or shortly thereafter.
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
, who, having found that they encouraged one another, sent them one by one to different Protestant bishop
s or doctors
.
Only the youngest, Mompesson, conformed. The rest eventually escaped and returned to their colleges on the continent after many adventures. It is not known for certain what happened to young Garnet, but it seems likely that he was the youth confined to the house of Dr. Richard Edes
. He fell ill and was sent home under bond to return to custody at Oxford by a certain day.
The boy escaped yet again, and to avoid trouble he had then to keep away even from his own father. At last he reached Saint Omer again, and then went to Valladolid in 1596, after many escapades.
, in 1599, age 24, "returning to England I wandered", he says, "from place to place, to reduce souls which went astray and were in error as to the knowledge of the true Catholic Church".
in 1605 he was arrested near Warwick
, going under the name Thomas Rokewood, which he had no doubt assumed from Ambrose Rokewood
of Coldham Hall
, whose chaplain
he then was, and who had, unfortunately, been implicated in the plot.
, where he was tortured in order to make him give evidence against Henry Garnet, his famous uncle, superior of the English Jesuits, who had recently admitted him into the Society of Jesus. The authorities suspected that Henry Garnet was implicated in the plot. Henry Garnet was later executed because of his (suspected) involvement in the plot.
Though no connection with the conspiracy could be proved against Thomas, he was kept in the Tower of London
for seven months, at the end of which time he was suddenly put on board ship with forty-six other priests, and a royal proclamation, dated 10 July 1606, was read to them, threatening death if they returned. They were then carried across the Channel and set ashore in Flanders
.
to see the superior of the Jesuits, Father Baldwin, his companion in the adventures of 1595. Father Baldwin sent him to the English Jesuit novitiate
, Saint John's, Leuven
, in which he was the first novice
to be received.
' controversy with Cardinal Bellarmine
about the Oath of Allegiance. Garnet was offered his life if he would take the oath, but he steadfastly refused, and was executed at the age of 32, at Tyburn, protesting that he was "the happiest man this day alive". His relic
s, which were preserved at Saint Omer, were lost during the French Revolution
.
St. Thomas Garnet's Independent School in Boscombe, Bournemouth, is dedicated to the saint.
Saint Omer
The name Saint Omer may refer to:* Saint Audomare, the seventh century saint whose name is often shortened as "St. Omer"* Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, a French town* Saint-Omer, Calvados, a French commune...
and therefore of Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
. He was executed at Tyburn
Tyburn, London
Tyburn was a village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch in present-day London. It took its name from the Tyburn or Teo Bourne 'boundary stream', a tributary of the River Thames which is now completely covered over between its source and its outfall into the...
and is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales are a group of men and women who were executed for treason and related offences in the Kingdom of England between 1535 and 1679...
.
Thomas Garnet's family
Thomas Garnet was born into a prominent family. His uncle, Henry GarnetHenry Garnet
Henry Garnet , sometimes Henry Garnett, was a Jesuit priest executed for his complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Born in Derbyshire, he was educated in Nottingham and later at Winchester College, before moving to London in 1571 to work for a publisher...
, was the superior
Provincial superior
A Provincial Superior is a major superior of a religious order acting under the order's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that order in a territorial division of the order called a province--similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical...
of the Jesuits in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Richard Garnet, Thomas's father, was at Balliol College, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, at the time when great severity began to be used against Catholics. His example provided leadership to a generation of Oxford men which was to produce Edmund Campion
Edmund Campion
Saint Edmund Campion, S.J. was an English Roman Catholic martyr and Jesuit priest. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Protestant England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason by a kangaroo court, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn...
, Robert Persons
Robert Parsons (priest)
Robert Persons , later known as Robert Parsons, was an English Jesuit priest.-Early life:...
and other English Catholics.
Thomas's schooling
Thomas attended the HorshamHorsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
grammar school and was afterwards a page
Page (servant)
A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
to one of the half-brothers of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who were, however, conformists (i.e., conformed to the Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
faith).
Thomas goes to Saint Omer
Because EnglishEnglish people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
colleges had been turned over to Protestants, English Catholics had to go to the continent
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for their education. Thomas, at age 17, was amongst the first students of Saint Omer's Jesuit College (at Stonyhurst
Stonyhurst
Stonyhurst is the name of a rural estate owned by the Society of Jesus near Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. It is dominated by Stonyhurst College, its preparatory school Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall and the parish Church of St Peter's.-The Estate:...
since 1794) in 1593. By 1595 he was considered fit for Saint Albans, the new English seminary
English College, Valladolid
The Royal English and Welsh College, Valladolid, under the patronage of St Alban, was founded in 1589 during the protestant reformation for the training of Catholic priests for the English and Welsh Mission....
at Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
. In January he set out from Calais with five others from Calais, John Copley, William Worthington, John Ivreson, James Thomson, and Henry Mompesson.
Captured in the Channel
They were lucky in finding as a travelling companion, a Jesuit Father William Baldwin, who was going to SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in disguise under the alias Ottavio Fuscinelli, but misfortunes soon began. After severe weather in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, they found themselves obliged to run for shelter to The Downs
The Downs
The Downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge...
, where their vessel was searched by men from some of Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
's ships, and they were discovered hiding in the hold. They were immediately made prisoners and treated very roughly. They were sent round the Nore
Nore
The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames Estuary, England. It marks the point where the River Thames meets the North Sea, roughly halfway between Havengore Creek in Essex and Warden Point in Kent....
up to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and were examined by Charles, second Lord Howard of Effingham, the Lord Admiral.
Father Baldwin's test
After this Father Baldwin was sent to Bridewell prisonBridewell Palace
Bridewell Palace in London, originally a residence of King Henry VIII, later became a poorhouse and prison. The name "Bridewell" subsequently became synonymous with police stations and detention facilities in England and in Ireland...
, where one of those incidents occurred that were so representative of the treacherousness of the Elizabethan age. He met a confessor named James Atkinson who, under torture, had divulged names. He was riven by remorse and terror that he would be tortured again, this time to death and would die unabsolved for his betrayals.
This placed Father Baldwin in a real quandary. Was Atkinson a spy? In appealing for a priest to hear his confession was he angling to trick Baldwin into revealing himself as a priest? In the end he heard Atkinson's confession, whose joy at absolution was luminous. Later, Atkinson would suffer further tortures, and die from this cruelty, or shortly thereafter.
Escapes
Meantime his young companions had been handed over to Archbishop WhitgiftJohn Whitgift
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, who, having found that they encouraged one another, sent them one by one to different Protestant bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s or doctors
Doctor of Theology
Doctor of Theology is a terminal academic degree in theology. It is a research degree that is considered by the U.S. National Science Foundation to be the equivalent of a Doctor of Philosophy....
.
Only the youngest, Mompesson, conformed. The rest eventually escaped and returned to their colleges on the continent after many adventures. It is not known for certain what happened to young Garnet, but it seems likely that he was the youth confined to the house of Dr. Richard Edes
Richard Edes
Richard Edes was an English churchman. He became Dean of Worcester, and was nominated one of the translators for the Authorised King James Version, in the Second Oxford Company, but died in the earliest stages of the project....
. He fell ill and was sent home under bond to return to custody at Oxford by a certain day.
The boy escaped yet again, and to avoid trouble he had then to keep away even from his own father. At last he reached Saint Omer again, and then went to Valladolid in 1596, after many escapades.
First return to the dangers of England
After ordinationOrdination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
, in 1599, age 24, "returning to England I wandered", he says, "from place to place, to reduce souls which went astray and were in error as to the knowledge of the true Catholic Church".
Effect of the Gunpowder Plot
During the excitement caused by the Gunpowder PlotGunpowder 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...
in 1605 he was arrested near Warwick
Warwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
, going under the name Thomas Rokewood, which he had no doubt assumed from Ambrose Rokewood
Ambrose Rokewood
Sir Ambrose Rookwood was a member of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I with a Catholic monarch. Rookwood was born into a wealthy family of Catholic recusants, and educated by Jesuits at Flanders. His older brother became a Franciscan, and his two...
of Coldham Hall
Coldham Hall
Coldham Hall is a Grade I listed building, built in 1574, that is located in the parish of Stanningfield in Suffolk. The Hall is very close to the village of Lawshall, and part of the Coldham estate is located within this parish.-Description:...
, whose chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
he then was, and who had, unfortunately, been implicated in the plot.
Imprisonment
Father Garnet was now imprisoned first in the Gatehouse, then in the TowerTower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
, where he was tortured in order to make him give evidence against Henry Garnet, his famous uncle, superior of the English Jesuits, who had recently admitted him into the Society of Jesus. The authorities suspected that Henry Garnet was implicated in the plot. Henry Garnet was later executed because of his (suspected) involvement in the plot.
Though no connection with the conspiracy could be proved against Thomas, he was kept in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
for seven months, at the end of which time he was suddenly put on board ship with forty-six other priests, and a royal proclamation, dated 10 July 1606, was read to them, threatening death if they returned. They were then carried across the Channel and set ashore in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
.
Return to the Continent
Father Garnet now went to his old school at Saint Omer, then to BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
to see the superior of the Jesuits, Father Baldwin, his companion in the adventures of 1595. Father Baldwin sent him to the English Jesuit novitiate
Novitiate
Novitiate, alt. noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a novice monastic or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to the religious life....
, Saint John's, Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
, in which he was the first novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
to be received.
Return to England and martyrdom
In September 1607, he was sent back to England, but was arrested six weeks later by an apostate priest called Rouse. This was the time of King JamesJames I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
' controversy with Cardinal Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was one of the most important figures in the Counter-Reformation...
about the Oath of Allegiance. Garnet was offered his life if he would take the oath, but he steadfastly refused, and was executed at the age of 32, at Tyburn, protesting that he was "the happiest man this day alive". His relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s, which were preserved at Saint Omer, were lost during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
St. Thomas Garnet's Independent School in Boscombe, Bournemouth, is dedicated to the saint.
Summary
- 1575 Born, Southwark
- 1608 Died, Tyburn
- 1929 Beatified (i.e., the first step to canonisation)
- 1970 Canonised, by Pope Paul VI (canonised, i.e., declared a saint)
- 1 December, Saint Thomas Garnet's memorial Day
- 25 October, Feast Day of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales