Momentoes of the English Martys and Confessors For Every Day of the Year

As a daily remembrance of our forefathers in the faith, these selections have been made from the records of their lives and times, and also from their writings. While the fullest and most important biographies are naturally predominant, 'the list is, it is hoped, fairly representative. In these pages are included not only those whom the Church has declared to be "Venerable" or "Blessed," but also various others of either sex, conspicuous as witnesses to the faith, or for Their zeal in its behalf. Such characteristic incidents have also been added as may fill up the portraiture of the period.The claims of the martyrs on our devotion need hardly be expressed. If the Apostle of every country is specially venerated as the means by which the faith was first received, what honour is due to this goodly company of our own race and speech which at so great a cost preserved the faith for us? Its members are our patrons, then, by the double tie of nature and grace. "Look," says the Prophet, "to the rock whence you are hewn, to the hole of the pit whence you were dug out." And our fore fathers in the faith are indeed "exceedingly honourable." Fisher, the "Saintly Cardinal" ; More, the illustrious Chancellor; Campion, the "golden-mouthed" ; Southwell, the priest poet; Margaret Pole, the last of the Plantagenets; Margaret Clitheroe, in the" winepress alone" ; Ralph Milner, the sturdy yeoman; Philip Howard, the victim of Herodias; Swithin Wells, a "hunter before the Lord"; Horner, the tailor with his vestments of salvation; Mason, the serving-man; Plunket, last in time, not least in dignity or holiness. All these high or humblct with the sons of 55. Augustine, Benedict, Bridget, Bruno, Francis, Ignatius, and the crowd of secular priests, bear the same palm and shine with the same aureole, for they confessed una voce the same faith and sealed it with their blood, and for this land of ours. But for their willing sacrifices, this country might have been as frozen in heresy as Norway or Sweden and other northern lands.The period dealt with is full of instruction. It opens with the greed, lust, and despotism of Henry VIII, triumphant in the suppression of the monasteries, the divorce of Catherine and the Oath of Supremacy. We note next the beginning of the new religion, the brief restoration of the faith under Mary, then Protestantism established in blood under Elizabeth. Amidst the later persecutions, none appear more malicious than that of the Commonwealth; for the Puritans, like the Nonconformists of to-day, proclaimed liberty of conscience, and with that cry on their lips put Catholics to death solely for their faith. In contrast with the false brethren and apostates, with the time-servers and the traitors of every kind-alas, too often found-and against the growing domination of heretics and tyrants, the martyrs stand out as the champions of faith and freedom, and of freedom for the faith.