ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 12th of February
BLESSED JOHN NUTTER, PRIEST AND MARTYR
John Nutter was born in the parish of Burnley, in Lancashire, and educated in the university of Oxford, where he was admitted bachelor of divinity, June 13, 1575. Afterwards leaving the protestant communion, he went to Rheims [Reims], where he and his brother arrived, August 13, 1579. He was made priest in 1582, and sent upon the mision. He took shipping at Newhaven, "Havre de Grace," in France, with a design to land at Scarborough: but the ship foundering upon the coast of Suffolk, and Mr. Nutter being taken ill of a violent fever, he was put on shore at Dunwich.
The ship was soon after lost, but the mariners and passengers were all saved. In the wreck a neighbouring minister laying hold of a bag, in hopes of meeting with some booty, was disappointed to find nothing but Catholic books, from which, both he and the magistrates, to whom he gave an account of what he had found, suspected the sick man and his companions to be priests. And upon further inquiry, Mr. Nutter, not denying his character, they took him into custody, together with Mr. Conyers, another priest, and Mr. Lawson, a layman. And, not withstanding his illness, they fastened a great chain of iron to his leg, with a clog of wood at the end of it; and having served his two companions in the same manner, sent in to town to give an account to the council of the capture they had made.
In the meantime, while they were waiting for an answer, the neighbouring ministers and others crowded in upon Mr. Nutter; and, notwithstanding his sickness, will needs to dispute with him about religion, all attacking him with joint forces, some upon one article, some upon another to whom he gave, sick as he was, satisfactory answers, that - though they would not open their eyes to behold the truth which he set before them -, they could not help admiring his learning and concluded that he was a more than ordinary man, perhaps a bishop, or at least a cunning Jesuit, sent upon some plot into the nation. But none of them all, though they saw him in such a plight with his fever and chain, that he could neither rise out of bed, nor turn himself in bed, had the Christianity to propose the easing him, at least for a time, of his chain and clog: such was the barbarity of the people in those days with regard to Catholics.
Within ten days orders came from the council, that the prisoners should be removed to London; and Mr. Nutter and his companions were put into a waggon and conveyed to town, with a strong guard to attend them; from whose inhumanity Mr. Nutter suffered much in this journey, he being still violently ill, and loaded with irons, and his guards contriving on purpose to carry him through the most rugged ways they could: for which they gave no other reason but that they did it to exercise his patience. After their arrival at London, Mr. Nutter and his companions were sent down to Richmond, to be examined by secretary Walsingham. Mr. Nutter was so ill that be could scarcely either stand or speak, so that, after he had acknowledged that he was a Catholic priest, no more questions were asked him, but he was sent back to London, and committed to the Marshalsea.
Here, by the blessing of God, and the charitable help of some good Catholics, he quickly recovered; and he remained in this prison a whole year, where he did much good, reconciling many to the Catholic Church, and taking great pains in instructing them therein. And so zealous and indefatigable was he in this charitable work of his neighbours' conversion and salvation, that though sometimes he seemed to spend a great deal of time in vain, and to lose his labour, with regard to certain persons whom he had to deal with, he would never despond or leave off, but still persevered in praying earnestly to God, and using the best exhortations he could, till these stubborn hearts yielded at last to the divine grace. Amongst those whom the man of God took vast pains with, there was one whom he could not, during life, bring to anything: but the same being one of the spectators of his death, was so moved thereby, as being quite changed into another man, and from that day to resolve to live in that church for which he saw this holy Priest die with so much constancy.
Mr. Nutter was also remarkably charitable to his enemies; and so far from seeking or desiring any revenge, as to be glad to do them kindness; which he showed in the case of those very men who had as lately grossly injured him, at the time of his apprehension and bringing him up to town; for they being prosecuted by the officers of the Marshalsea for unjustly detaining some clothes belonging to Mr. Conyers, his fellow-prisoner, and justly fearing the consequence, applied to the Catholic prisoners whom they had before treated with so much inhumanity, to beg of them to stop the prosecution, which, when Mr. Conyers seemed unwilling to consent to, unless they would be at the charges of the suit which was commenced, Mr. Nutter undertook to be an intercessor for his enemies, and by his charitable remonstrances, prevailed with his follow-prisoner to desist from his claim.
He was also a great rebuker of vice, wheresoever he discovered it; which charity he exercised with that unaffected candour, simplicity, and sincerity, joined with a profound self-knowledge and humility, as to procure from his prisoners the name of John of Plain Dealing. In the meantime he was very severe to himself, treating his body roughly, not only by fastings and watchings, but also by frequent disciplines, which, though he industriously sought to conceal it, was discovered by one of his closest friends a little before his death. His lodging was very incommodious, in a poor hole in the garret, or highest part of the prison; he was well pleased with it, as being more remote from the noise, and therefore more proper for prayer and contemplation.
One day, when a certain priest was to be put in irons, and the gaolers were fitting them to his legs and hands, Mr. Nutter hearing of it, thrust himself into the company, and laying hold of the fetters, kissed them with great veneration; and when, in the way of ridiculing him, they asked him if he would not kiss the manacles too! Yes, said he, very willingly, and did so with great respect, affirming that these irons were sanctified by the touch of the bodies of God's servants, who had been bound by them.
After Mr. Nutter had been about a year in the Marshalsea, he was called to another examination, and had the usual questions put to him; to which he answered with great courage and resolution. At length they proceeded to that question which they usually proposed in the last place to those whom they designed to make away, viz. what he would do, in case the pope should invade the kingdom. To which he answered, that he would do as a good Catholic Priest ought to do; and as he would not farther satisfy them what that was, they would needs infer from hence, that he was a traitor, at least, in his heart.
The next day Mr. Nutter promised Mr. Popham, the attorney general, to give him, in writing, a full and satisfactory answer to all things, if he, on his part, would engage his word to deliver this writing into the queen's own hands. Mr. Popham promising so to do, Mr. Nutter wrote a full account, as it is thought, of the true reasons that brought him and his fellow priests over into England: which were not to disturb the peace of the kingdom, or to plot against the queen; but rather to invite their fellow subjects to peace with God; and to promote the true and only solid interest of their queen and country. This writing had no other effect, than to hasten, perhaps, his trial and execution: for, immediately upon it, he was summoned to appear in Westminster-Hall, and was there tried and condemned, with four other priests, on the 7th of February; and, after lying in irons five days in the Tower, was drawn, together with the same four confessors, to Tyburn, and there hanged, cut down alive, bowelled and quartered, February 12, 1583-4. He was the fourth, in that happy number, to fight that last battle of his Lord; and his ghostly children, who were present on this occasion, were not a little edified with that cheerfulness and serenity which appeared in his countenance, as well upon the hurdle as at the gallows; and that courage and constancy which he showed in his sufferings. He suffered, says Mr. Wood, in his Athenæ Oxon., for being a Catholic Priest and denying the queen's supremacy.
Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 1
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