THE
P RTAL
January 2012
Page 6
A Recusant
A Martyr,
Martyr
An Abbot
and John Henry Newman
by Joanna Bogle
Blessed William Carter
glorious Abbey at Rievalux where he was abbot can
still be visited. He is particularly associated with the
I had never heard of Blessed William Carter until ideal of Christian friendship, wrote about it and ruled
I started to do research for The PORTAL magazine, the Abbey in a spirit of gentleness.
which wanted some information on saints to honour
During his time as Abbot the community at Rievaulx
in January. But I feel a bond with William Carter, as
should every journalist and author, because he was a grew steadily and at one time had six hundred monks.
printer. Born in 1548, he was a devout Catholic and he He travelled extensively around Britain visiting other
printed in 1580 an edition of a book by a Dr Gregory Cistercian monasteries. Aelred suffered severely from
illness in his last years and died at Rievaulx in 1167.
Martin called “A Treatise of Schism”.
Blessed John Henry
Newman
The Schism of the title was the break made with
the worldwide Church centred in Rome with the
successor of St Peter. Carter was arrested and brutally
tortured on the rack in the Gatehouse prison, later
I came across the quotation from Blessed John Henry
being transferred to the Tower of London. He was
condemned at the Old Bailey on January 10th, 1584. Newman, which seems to me to give a timely message
A paragraph in the book expressed confidence that about England and her saints, to start a new year in
Catholic Hope would triumph, and pious Judith would this second decade of the 21st century:
slay Holofernes.
“... there are special reasons at this time for
recurring to the Saints of our own dear and glorious,
This was interpreted as an incitement to murder
most favoured, yet most erring
Queen Elizabeth I, although
and most unfortunate England.
the context clearly did not
Such a recurrence may serve to
support this interpretation and
make us love our country better,
the book’s message was a call
and on truer grounds, than
to spiritual and not to political
heretofore; to teach us to invest
action. Carter was executed for
her territory, her cities and
treason at Tyburn on January
villages, her hills and springs,
11th, 1584, the day after his
with sacred associations; to give
trial. He is among the Beatified
us an insight into her present
Martyrs of England and Wales
historical position in the course
and an example of courage and
of the Divine Dispensation; to
faithfulness as a lay Catholic.
instruct us in the capabilities
of the English character; and to
open upon us the duties and the
hopes to which that Church is
heir, which was in former times
January brings the feast-days
the Mother of St. Boniface and
of a number of other English
St Etheldreda.”
saints, notably St Aelred on
John Henry Newman,
January 12th. He lived in the
Littlemore, 1843
12th century. The ruins of the
St Aelred of Rievalux
St Aelred of
Rievalux