ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 8th of October
BLESSED ROBERT DIBDALE, PRIEST AND MARTYR
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| London Oratory, The Martyrs of Tyburn Tree (detail) |
Richard, or, as he is called in most catalogues, Robert Dibdale, was born in Worcestershire, was an alumnus and priest of the English College, then residing at Rheims, and from thence, anno 1584, was sent to labour in the English vineyard, which he diligently cultivated for some years, till, falling into the hands of the persecutors, he was tried and condemned to die for his priestly character and functions. And, in consequence of this sentence, was, together with Mr Lowe and Mr Adams, drawn to Tyburn, and there hanged, bowelled and quartered, October 8, 1586.
Of him thus writes Mr Davis, an ancient missioner, in a manuscript relation sent over to Douay, anno 1626:
"Mr Richard Dibdale, priest, was executed with Mr John Lowe. I met him once at Sir George Peckham's, of Denham, besides Uxbridge, where he practised the office of an Exorcist: for there were three persons bewitched and possessed, two maids and one man. Out of one of the maids he brought forth a great needle at her cheek, and two rusty nails, and pieces of lead - her name was Ann Smith. The other was called Fid, who, after the apprehension of Mr Dibdale, became concubine to Bancroft, called archbishop of Canterbury, and had a child by him, as I have heard. I left him there upon Ascension Eve, and coming to London, I was apprehended by Newal and Worsely, two pursuivants, on Ascension Day in the morning, when saying my prime, bound and sent to the Compter in Wood-Street, and two gentlemen were taken with me; the third gentleman who brought me a missal escaping by giving the pursuivants 3 l. The same Mr Dibdale I also met twice or thrice at the old Lord Vaux's house, who then lived at London. More of him I cannot say of my own knowledge."
Of the same Mr Dibdale, and his exorcisms, thus writes the learned and pious Diego de Yepez, confessor to Philip II. king of Spain, and bishop of Tarasona, in his Spanish history of the persecution of England, 1. 2. chap. 13. "Wonderful, says he, were the things that happened in the exorcisms of certain persons possessed by the devil, made by Mr Dibdale, priest, who was since martyred, and by others, in the house of a certain catholic, where many persons of distinction met, with great profit to their souls, to see and hear things far exceeding the forces of human nature; which obliged them to reverence the works of God, and the virtue and power which Christ our Lord has bequeathed to the ministers of his church. The martyr Dibdale obliged the devil to bring up by the mouth of one of the possessed persons, balls of hair, and pieces of iron, and other such like things, which it was impossible could ever naturally have gone into, or afterwards have come out of, a human body.
The devils also, upon this occasion, told what relics of the saints each one had privately brought with him; and obeyed the prayers and exorcisms of the church, confessing and declaring, to their own confusion, the virtue which the sign of the cross, holy water, and relics, (as well of the ancient saints, as of those that suffer in these days in England for the catholic faith) have against them. All which, though some incredulous and hardened heretics slighted yet, others that were not so much biassed by passion, but more reasonable, were convinced by the evidence of what they saw, and thereupon renounced their errors." So far this prelate.
The same author, in this and the following chapters, relates several other remarkable histories, which happened in these times, of persons possessed by the devil. As of a young man in Derbyshire, who being a catholic in his heart, to save his worldly substance (for he was rich) outwardly conformed to the established religion, and received the protestant communion; which he had no sooner done, but he fell into a great trouble of mind, followed by strange fits, which, as it was not long after, plainly discovered proceeded from an evil spirit possessing him. Also of another young man in Hampshire, to whom the like happened upon his going, though but once, to the protestant church. He was delivered by a catholic priest, a prisoner for his faith; who having reconciled him by confession, and given him the holy communion, sent him home perfectly cured, giving him withal, as a defence against the devil, the cassock of another priest, who had suffered martyrdom a little before; "Which," says my author, "the young man kept with great reverence and devotion, and shewed it to the person who related this history to me; and he is living at this day, with great edification to all that know him." He relates also of a third person, a student of Oxford, who was strangely possessed by the devil, frequently persuading him to make away with himself. His friends would have it that he was mad, and sent him to Bedlam. After some time, by the means of a catholic gentleman, who recounted this history to my author, he was, by degrees, convinced of the errors in which he was brought up, and reconciled to the catholic church; and having made a general confession, and received the holy communion, was perfectly cured both in soul and body. But returning to the university, that he might not lose his place, which he enjoyed before in his college, he concealed his being a catholic, and went to the protestant service; which he had no sooner done, but the devil returned again, molesting him as before; and shortly after he hanged himself in despair. A fourth history, which the same author gives from the testimony of his English friends, is of one Mr Bridges, a student of Middle Temple, who being possessed by the devil, was brought to Mr Fox, the protestant martyrologist, to be delivered by his prayers. His friends at first imagined that he was actually delivered, and published aloud the success of the preacher, as a confirmation of their religion; but they were quickly undeceived, and the young gentleman was found to be worse than ever. They carried him therefore again to Mr Fox; but instead of their finding him in a condition to deliver others, he appeared, by all symptoms, to be possessed himself; though his friends, desirous to disguise the matter, gave another turn to the strange agitations they saw in him; attributing them to a temptation of despair, from the great sense he had of his own sins and of God's justice.
From the same memoirs, and from a manuscript in my hands.
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