THE P
RTAL Jermyn Gardiner
March 2011 Page 7
A Recusant Martyr by Joanna Bogle
Have you heard of Blessed Jermyn Gardiner ? No , nor had I . Which is a pity because his story is an interesting one . He was the last Catholic martyr to perish under Henry VIII , and he is said to have been “ stirred to courage ” by the example of St Thomas More , who was beheaded on the orders of the king in June 1535 .
We need to remember that Henry VIII lived and died a right-wing , fanatical Catholic : he never went to anything other than a Latin Mass , he denounced as heretics anyone who opposed traditional Catholic doctrines , and he wanted all this on his own terms . More had died because he saw the real issues that were being raised : he opposed the king ’ s bigamous marriage to Anne Boleyn and he would not accept the king as head of the Church and the consequent break with the successor of St Peter in Rome .
Threats to Henry ’ s authority
Jermyn Gardiner , a nephew of Stephen Gardiner , Bishop of Winchester , was a layman and held a position as a clerk or official at court . As the 1540s opened , Henry was obsessed with eliminating what he saw as threats to his authority . He wanted to embark on a campaign against the Protestants , who were growing in number and gaining popular support . Gardiner , a loyal Catholic , was to be one of the team supporting the king in crushing such dissent , and one of the victims was to be Thomas Cranmer , Archbishop of Canterbury , who was showing strongly Protestant tendencies .
Tables turned
But this was not really about the truths of the Catholic Faith : eventually under an agreed deal , Cranmer was temporarily reprieved along with other officials , and the tables were turned on Jermyn Gardiner , who was accused of being a traitor to the king . He had been used by Henry as a pawn – his own religious beliefs were sincere , and of a different order from those of the king , and he believed in the reality of the Church and the truths of its teachings
In 1544 he was arraigned and tried on the grounds that he sought to “ deprive the King of his dignity , title , and name of Supreme Head of the English and Irish Church ”, and the penalty for this was death . He was executed at Tyburn in March 1544 , and with him died John Larke , who had been rector of Chelsea , and John Ireland , who had been Thomas More ’ s chaplain .
At the last minute , Gardiner and the others were offered the chance of a reprieve if they would recant their opinions , but they refused to do so . The issue was one of loyalty to the Church .
The Pilgrimage of Grace
It had been eight years since More had died : the country had been in ferment . Anne Boleyn had perished on the scaffold in 1536 after a brief marriage to the king and the birth of a daughter . The Pilgrimage of Grace , a great gathering of people seeking to plead with the king not to destroy the old monasteries and sanctuaries , had been crushed and its leaders slaughtered . The Abbey at Jervaulx in Yorkshire -- the Abbot had been a leader in the Pilgrimage of Grace - had been blown up by gunpowder .
Faithful
Jermyn Gardiner was an official who could have thrown in his lot with the king , and announced his unconditional support for Henry as head of the English Church – this would have saved his life . He remained faithful to what he knew was right , to the universality of the Church in union with the successor of St Peter . Instead of being one more official caught up in the politics of his day , he became a martyr , declared Blessed by the Church . He was beatified in 1886 .