[The following takes place during the first throes of the Protestant Revolution in England]
On April 28, 1535, five men were brought up for trial under the new law [the Act of Supremacy]: John Houghton, prior of the London Charterhouse, Augustine Webster, prior of the Carthusians of Axholme in Lincolnshire, Robert Lawrence, prior of the Carthusians of Beawale in Nottinghamshire, Richard Reynolds of the Bridgettine monastery of Sion, and John Hale, a secular priest, the vicar of Isleworth.
The next day, a jury, terrorized by Cromwell, condemned them to die as traitors, and when the condemned were asked why they persisted in an opinion forbidden by the lords and bishops in Parliament, Richard Reynolds replied for all of them. All the rest of Christendom held opinion with him and his fellows, he told the judges, “and even in this realm of England, though the smaller part holds with you, I am sure the larger part is at heart of our opinion, although outwardly, pertly from fear, partly from hope, they profess to be of yours.”
Pressed to reveal the names of those who secretly agreed with him he answered, “All good men.” On May 4 the monks were drawn on hurdles to Tyburn, there hanged, cut down while still alive, their bowels and hearts ripped out, and their bodies hacked to pieces and impaled on spears, all this carried out with a singular brutality upon one victim at a time, while the others looked on, witnesses reported, without changing color or altering the tone in which those awaiting their turn exhorted the bystanders to do well and obey the King in everything not against the honor of God and the Church.
Source:
Mattingly, Garrett. “Part III: The Divorce of Henry VIII (1527-1536); Chapter Five, Section iv” Catherine of Aragon. New York: Quality Paperback , 1990. 417-18. Print.
Further Reading:
[Saint John Houghton, O.Cart.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Houghton_(martyr\))
[St. Robert Lawrence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lawrence_(martyr\))
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