In 1543, King Henry VIII signed into law the Act of Supremacy which established the Church of England as the official religion of the state with the monarch as its head. Protestant Separatists as well as faithful Catholics were considered to be traitors for not adhering to the state religion and were persecuted, even hunted! Non-Anglicans were stripped of the right to pray, assemble, vote, own land, print books, or hold public office because of the series of Penal Laws passed against them. The Act of Supremacy also established the Oath of Supremacy which declared the confessor’s acknowledgement of and allegiance to the monarch as the head of the Church. Thus, those who did not recognize the supremacy of the English monarch were excluded from political positions and could not even attend schools where swearing the oath was also required. Catholic priests that refused to swear the oath and become Anglican priests were guilty of treason and executed. The Act of Supremacy which marked the beginning of the English Reformation was the beginning of a period of persecution for Catholics in what was just a generation before a Catholic nation. Catholics would not have all of their rights and dignity returned to them until the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 which removed the requirement of swearing the Oath of Supremacy to have a seat in Parliament and which was the culmination of the decades long Catholic Emancipation movement whereby Catholics were slowly restored to full citizenship. One of the martyrs produced during this period of persecution was Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest, missionary, and talented poet who was accused of treason and ultimately executed for his religious conviction, but whose memory lives on in those who find hope in his work.
Robert Southwell was born in 1561 to a wealthy Catholic family. Due to the suppression of Catholicism as a result of the Act of Supremacy, no one was allowed to attend college and university unless they swore the Oath of Supremacy. Southwell’s parents, who remained true to their Catholic faith, sent their son to study at the English College at Douai in France, a Jesuit school, in 1576. It was there that he began his studies of philosophy and theology and became aware of his vocation. He applied to join the Jesuits but was denied since he was too young at 15 years old. Determined to pursue his deepest desire, he walked to Rome to continue his studies at the Roman College, also a Jesuit school. There he was admitted to the Jesuit noviceship. He later transferred once more to the English College, another Jesuit school in Rome founded only a few years prior to his arrival. He was ordained a priest in 1584 and in 1586, he was sent as a missionary to England to serve the underground church.
At that time there was an infamous priest-hunter named Richard Topcliffe who was a prized agent of Queen Elizabeth I. He would hunt down priests and torture them in his own house until they revealed the whereabouts of other clergymen and recusant Catholics. Topcliffe captured Fr. Southwell in 1592, and after a month of torture, was unable to extract any information from the good priest. Fr. Southwell was thrown into the Tower of London where he suffered for years. On February 21st, 1595, he was finally tried and executed by hanging, drawing, and quartering which was the usual punishment for treason. His crime was being a Catholic priest which was a punishable offense under the Act Against Jesuits and Seminary Priests of 1584. He was 33 years old at his death. He was canonized by Pope St. Paul VI on October 25, 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
In addition to his heroic courage and fortitude, St. Robert Southwell is known for his poetry. While serving the underground church in London, he wrote many treatises, epistles, and poems which circulated secretly in both manuscript and print. The Jesuits were not sent to England solely to minister to the remnant, but to keep the English Church alive in the hopes that one day the Church would be liberated. Fr. Southwell’s homilies, epistles, and poems were hope for the Christians who read them, and were a product of an authentically English Catholicism which was still alive in England. His influence was so far reaching that it is thought that Shakespeare, a contemporary of Southwell, read his works and was influenced by them in his own poetry. All of Fr. Southwell’s poems were spiritual in nature, leading the reader to find hope in faith despite the vacuum of justice. One of St. Robert Southwell’s most famous poems, The Burning Babe, is a reflection on the Nativity of Christ, written in the context of his pastorate in England. One of the main themes found in his poetry is love, particularly the love that God showed us in his incarnation and death, and also the hope we find in the resurrection. In this poem, Southwell places the reader in the dead of winter, witnessing the birth of a burning baby who provides warmth to the cold hearts of humans, yet none approach him but the reader. In fact, he is a furnace, and the metals that are purified in him are the souls of human beings. Whether the reader is shivering because of fear, or cold because of hatred, this burning babe will warm us in the fire which is Love over the fuel which is Justice, but not without the fanning of Mercy. The beautiful message of this poem is timeless and can be applied to many situations in one’s life. It is because of men like St. Robert Southwell that the Church lived on in England both in the intellectual tradition which he enriched, but also in the hearts of the faithful who were filled with hope through his ministry. By his example, we are reminded that despite whatever persecution we may experience for our beliefs, the God of All People is with us always and the Good News of his incarnation, death, and resurrection is a never-failing beacon of hope. May his prayers be with us always.
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
– Tertullian
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
– Jesus, Gospel of St. John 12:24
Works Cited
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Hunter-Kilmer, Meg. “Saint Robert Southwell, the martyr who brought beauty to England”. Aleteia, 16 Feb. 2017, https://aleteia.org/2017/02/16/saint-robert-southwell-the-martyr-who-brought-beauty-to-england/. Accessed 18 October 2021.
“Robert Southwell SJ”. Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-southwell. Accessed 18 October 2021.
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