ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 27th of February
BLESSED MARK BARKWORTH, PRIEST AND MARTYR
Mark Barkworth O.P. (alias Lambert), was born in Lincolnshire. He was brought up in the protestant religion till he was twenty-two years of age, when, going abroad he was converted to the catholic faith, and grounded in solid spirituality, at Douay, in Flanders, by one Father George, a Flemish Jesuit.
He had been, as he writes, a little before his martyrdom, now eight years in the school of Christ; and, for the two first, was under the instruction and discipline of Dr Barret, (president of the English college then residing at Rheims,) where also he enjoyed the company of those famous confessors, Dr Arrowsmith, Mr Lancaster, and Mr Bradshaw, men, as he says, of excellent lives, now helping him in heaven by their prayers. From hence he went into Spain, where he finished his studies, and was made priest in the English college of Valladolid.
After he was sent upon the English mission, he quickly fell into the hands of the persecutors; and, after many different examinations, and letting slip several opportunities of making his escape, he was brought upon his trial at the Old Bailey. The clerk bid him hold up his hand: for what crime? said he; for the crime of priesthood and treason, said the lord chief justice:
Why, said Mr Barkworth, can any one maintain that to be a priest is treason? Was not our Saviour a priest according to the order of Melchisedech? and will any one say that he was a traitor? Though I am of opinion, were he to be judged at this tribunal, he would meet with the like treatment as I look for.
They went on, Barkworth, hold up thy hand; by whom wilt thou be tried?
By God, said he, and by the apostles and evangelists, and all the blessed martyrs and saints in heaven.
Not so, said the judge, you must say by God and my country.
What, said he, you mean, my lord, these poor men, pointing to the jury; I will never let my blood lie at their door: for you will oblige them to bring in their verdict against me, right or wrong, or lay so heavy a fine upon them in the Star-chamber, that they will scarce be able to pay it in their whole lives.
The judge then put the question to him, art thou a priest, yea or no?
I will neither say, said he, that I am a priest, or that I am not.
Well then, said the judge, I see thou art a priest.
If you can prove that, said Mr Barkworth, I am a dead man; your laws stand against me, and I expect no favour at your hands; neither do I fear death, trusting in the grace of God. Nay, if I had ten lives, I would most willingly lay them all down for him who suffered so many torments, and so cruel a death, for my sins.
Tell me then, said the judge, if thou wilt not confess thyself to be a priest, what art thou?
A catholic, said he, making the sign of the cross; and, were I worthy to be a priest, I should look upon myself placed in a dignity not inferior to that of angels: for priests having a power given them of remitting and retaining sins, in God's name, which was never given to angels.
With that all the company laughed; and the question was again put to him, as before, by whom he would be tried! and he answered as before, by God and the holy apostles, &c., and not, said he, by these unlearned men: I was brought up to learning from a boy; and, after taking degrees among the learned, have spent in studies full seven years - let learned men judge in my cause, and not such as are unlearned.
Will you then be tried, said they, by a jury of ministers!
Hell-fire, said he, will try them; my cause is not to be trusted to them.
You would then, said the judge, be tried by priests?
That is right, said Mr Barkworth.
Call in then, said the judge, a jury of them.
Your lordship, said he, knows that a complete jury of them may be found in Wisbech castle.
With this, the lord chief justice withdrew; and the recorder, without any more ceremony, neither taking the deposition of witnesses, nor having the confession of the accused, nor waiting for the verdict of the jury, pronounced sentence upon the prisoner, as in cases of high treason; which as soon as Mr Barkworth heard, he fell upon his knees and lifting up his eyes to heaven. said, thanks be to God.
He received the sentence of death, says Father Moor, with a joyful and smiling countenance, and making the sign of the cross, began a hymn of joy, and then gave thanks to the judge. After which, addressing his discourse to the standers by, he exhorted them, as they professed themselves Christians, to show forth by their works, what they professed in their words, not fearing what the world can do against them; since, in effect, to die for the cause of justice and truth is a Christian's greatest gain; and he cannot even wish for a greater happiness than to shed his blood for him who so liberally shed his blood for us all.
 |
| An engraving of Newgate Prison, London, where Bl. Mark Barkworth was held |
He was sent back to Newgate, and walked through the streets, fettered as he was, with that air of magnanimity, that the crowd inquired, whether he was not one of the ringleaders of the Earl of Essex's riot!
No, said Mr Barkworth, but I am a soldier of Christ, who am to die for his faith.
Mr Barkworth, is commonly treated by the Benedictine monks for one of theirs, and Father B. W., a monk of that venerable order, in his manuscript account of the English congregation, which I have now before me, writes of him as follows:
As to those who entered the Spanish congregation, (though he neither lived, nor was clothed, in any monastery, as the Reverend Father Baker, affirms.) Mr Mark Barkworth, alias Lambert, challenges the first place.
Firstly: Because he was a great furtherer and concurrer, with those who engaged amongst the Spanish monks.
Secondly: Because, in 1601, after frequent occasions, and even provocations to make an escape; after nine several examines, before several tribunals, &c., being condemned for his faith, to make the nation remember, how it received the said holy faith, and to manifest the secrets of his heart and intentions, in regard to the order of St Bennet [St Benedict], he chose to be drawn to Tyburn, in the Benedictine habit; which, by some means he had procured and gotten and had his tonsure accordingly made, &c.,' by which, it appears, that Mr Barkworth was a Benedictine, at least, in desire, if not in effect.
As to the circumstances of his death, they are thus related by the historians of the Society of Jesus, upon occasion of Father Roger Filcock, who died at the same time and place.
Mr Barkworth and Mr Filcock, were both drawn together upon the same hurdle, from Newgate to Tyburn. When they were put up into the cart, Mr Barkworth, with a joyful accent, sung those words of the royal prophet, hæc dies quam fecit Dominus, exultemus; and Mr Filcock went on in the same tone, et lætemur in ea. Then Mr Barkworth declared how ready he was, to lay down, even a thousand lives, if he had them, for his faith; and protested that he forgave, with all his heart, the queen, and all that were any ways necessory to his death, and wished to have them with him in eternal glory. Then he recommended himself to the prayers of the catholics, and the cart was drawn from under him. Here some cruel wretch, fearing lest the weight of his body, should put the martyr too soon out of his pain, for he was tall and bulky, set his shoulders under him, to bear up at least, some part of that weight; so that he was cut down, whilst he was yet alive; and even, when the butcher was seeking for his heart, he pronounced these words, O God be merciful to me.
He suffered February the 27th, 1601. His head is kept by the English Benedictines at their convent at Douay.
Father Moor relates of Mr Barkworth, that when Mr Fleming, one of the counsel for the queen, told him at the bar, that he was a priest, and wore upon his forehead the mark of the beast; he replied, I am a Christian, and wear on my forehead the sign of the cross; by this sign, I am confirmed against the devil and heretics, God's enemies. I fear not your words nor your threats: I confess and adore one God; he created me to serve him; and serve him, I cannot, in any other but in the catholic faith. This faith, I profess; with the heart, men believe unto justice; but with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For this faith, I now desire to die, more than I ever desired to live. No death can be more precious than that which is undergone for this faith; which faith, Christ taught; and a hundred thousand martyrs have sealed with their blood.
From Arnoldus Raissius, in his catalogue martyr. Anglo-Duac, and from Father Moor's history of the English province of the Society of Jesus.
Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 1
Comments
Post a Comment