John Houghton (martyr): Difference between revisions
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|name=John Houghton, O.Cart. |
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|birth_date=c. 1487<ref name=Lawrence>[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029404310#page/n107/mode/2up Hendriks, Lawrence. ''The London Charterhouse'', London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889]</ref> |
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|birth_date=c. 1486 |
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|death_date=4 May 1535 |
|death_date=4 May 1535 |
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|feast_day=25 October |
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==Life== |
==Life== |
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Born around |
Born around 1487, he was (according to one of his fellow [[Carthusian]]s) educated at Cambridge, but cannot be identified among surviving records.<ref>{{acad|id=HTN531J|name=Houghton, John}}</ref> Similarly, no certain records can be found of his ordination. |
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He joined the [[London Charterhouse]] in |
He joined the [[London Charterhouse]] in 1516, progressed to be [[sacristan]] in 1523, and [[treasurer|procurator]] in 1528.<ref name=Lawrence/> In 1531, he became [[Prior]] of the [[Beauvale Charterhouse|Charterhouse of Beauvale]] in Nottinghamshire. However, in November of that year, he was elected Prior of the London house, to which he returned.<ref name=wainewright>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08465a.htm Wainewright, John. "Blessed John Houghton." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 2 Feb. 2014]</ref> In addition, the following spring he was named Provincial Visitor, at the head of the English Carthusians.<ref name=Lawrence/> |
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In 1534, he asked that he and his community be exempted from the oaths required under the new [[First Succession Act|Act of Succession]], which resulted in both him and his procurator, [[Humphrey Middlemore]], being arrested and taken to the [[Tower of London]]. However, by the end of May, they had been persuaded that the oath was consistent with their Catholicism, with the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows" and they returned to the Charterhouse, where (in the presence of a large armed force) the whole community made the required professions. |
In 1534, he asked that he and his community be exempted from the oaths required under the new [[First Succession Act|Act of Succession]], which resulted in both him and his procurator, [[Humphrey Middlemore]], being arrested and taken to the [[Tower of London]]. However, by the end of May, they had been persuaded that the oath was consistent with their Catholicism, with the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows" and they returned to the Charterhouse, where (in the presence of a large armed force) the whole community made the required professions. |
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Revision as of 18:31, 10 May 2018
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2013) |
John Houghton, O.Cart. | |
|---|---|
 St. John Houghton, O.Cart., by Francisco Zurbarán | |
| Forty Martyrs of England and Wales | |
| Born | c. 1487[1] England |
| Died | 4 May 1535 Tyburn, England |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Carthusian Order |
| Beatified | 9 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII |
| Canonized | 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI |
| Feast | 25 October |
Saint John Houghton, O.Cart., (c. 1486 – 4 May 1535) was a Carthusian hermit and Catholic priest and the first English Catholic martyr to die as a result of the Act of Supremacy by King Henry VIII of England. He was also the first member of his Order to die as a martyr.
Life
Born around 1487, he was (according to one of his fellow Carthusians) educated at Cambridge, but cannot be identified among surviving records.[2] Similarly, no certain records can be found of his ordination.
He joined the London Charterhouse in 1516, progressed to be sacristan in 1523, and procurator in 1528.[1] In 1531, he became Prior of the Charterhouse of Beauvale in Nottinghamshire. However, in November of that year, he was elected Prior of the London house, to which he returned.[3] In addition, the following spring he was named Provincial Visitor, at the head of the English Carthusians.[1]
In 1534, he asked that he and his community be exempted from the oaths required under the new Act of Succession, which resulted in both him and his procurator, Humphrey Middlemore, being arrested and taken to the Tower of London. However, by the end of May, they had been persuaded that the oath was consistent with their Catholicism, with the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows" and they returned to the Charterhouse, where (in the presence of a large armed force) the whole community made the required professions.
However, in 1535, the community was called upon to make the new oath as prescribed by the 1534 Act of Supremacy, which recognised Henry as the head of the Church in England. Again, Houghton, this time accompanied by the heads of the other two English Carthusian houses (Robert Lawrence, Prior of Beauvale, and Augustine Webster, Prior of Axholme), pleaded for an exemption, but this time they were summarily arrested by Thomas Cromwell. They were called before a special commission in April 1535, and sentenced to death, along with Richard Reynolds, O.Ss.S., a monk from Syon Abbey.[3]
Houghton, along with the other two Carthusians, Fr. Reynolds, and Fr. John Haile of Isleworth, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535.[4]
The three priors were taken to Tyburn in their religious habits and were not previously laicised from the priesthood and religious state as was the custom of the day. From his prison cell in the Tower, Thomas More saw the three Carthusian priors being dragged to Tyburn on hurdles and exclaimed to his daughter: "Look, Meg! These blessed Fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage!" John Houghton was the first to be executed. After he was hanged, he was taken down alive, and the process of quartering him began.
Catholic tradition relates that when Houghton was about to be quartered, as the executioner tore open his chest to remove his heart, he prayed, "O Jesus, what wouldst thou do with my heart?" A painting of the Carthusian Protomartyr by the noted painter of religious figures, Francisco Zurbarán, depicts him with his heart in his hand and a noose around his neck. In the Chapter house of St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster, in England, there is a painting depicting the martyrdom of the three priors.
After his death, his body was chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London. He was beatified on 9 December 1886 and canonized on 25 October 1970.
See also
- Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
- Carthusian Martyrs of London
- Carthusian Martyrs
- St John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy
References
- ^ a b c Hendriks, Lawrence. The London Charterhouse, London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889
- ^ "Houghton, John (HTN531J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b Wainewright, John. "Blessed John Houghton." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 2 Feb. 2014
- ^ Cranmer, Thomas (1833). The Remains of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Oxford University Press.
Sources
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2006)
- L. Hendriks, The London Charterhouse: its monks and its martyrs (1889)
- "Bl. Humphrey Middlemore". Catholic Encyclopedia.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1535 deaths
- English saints
- English Roman Catholic saints
- 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests
- Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
- Carthusians
- Carthusian Martyrs of London
- People executed by Tudor England by hanging, drawing and quartering
- Executed English people
- 16th-century Christian saints
- 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
- 15th-century English people
- 16th-century English people
- Alumni of the University of Cambridge
- People executed under Henry VIII of England
- People executed at Tyburn