Together with Father Houghton, Prior of the London House, Father Lawrence and Father Webster were brought to trial and condemned. Let Chauncy tell the story of their execution: with little variation it may stand for that of all the Catholic martyrs from 1535 to 1681:—
Being brought out of prison [the Tower] they were thrown down on a hurdle and fastened to it, lying at length on their backs, and so lying on the hurdle, they were dragged at the heels of horses through the city until they came to Tyburn, a place where, according to custom, criminals are executed, which is distant from the prison one league, or a French mile. Who can relate what grievous things, what tortures they endured on that whole journey, where one while the road lay over rough and hard, at another through wet and muddy places, which exceedingly abounded.
On arrival at the place of execution our holy Father was the first loosed, and then the executioner, as the custom is, bent his knee before him, asking pardon for the cruel work he had to do. O good Jesu,
“Quis non fleret,
Christi servum si videret,
In tanto supplicio,
Quis non posset contristari”;
beholding the benignity of so holy a man, how gently and moderately he spoke to the executioner, how sweetly he embraced and kissed him, and how piously he prayed for him and for all the bystanders. Then on being ordered to mount the ladder to the gibbet, where he was to be hanged, he meekly obeyed. Then one of the King’s Council, who stood there with many thousand people, who came together to witness the sight, asked him if he would submit to the king’s command and the Act of Parliament, for if he would he should be pardoned. The holy Martyr of Christ answered: “I call Almighty God, and I beseech you all in the terrible Day of Judgment, to bear witness, that being here about to die, I publicly declare that not through any pertinacity, malice, or rebellious spirit, do I commit this disobedience and denial of the will of our lord the king, but solely through fear of God, lest I should offend His Supreme Majesty; because our holy mother, the Church, has decreed and determined otherwise than as your king and his Parliament have ordained; wherefore I am bound in conscience and am prepared, and am not confounded, to endure these and all other torments that can be inflicted, rather than go against the doctrine of the Church. Pray for me, and have pity on my brethren, of whom I am the unworthy Prior.” And having said these things, he begged the executioner to wait until he had finished his prayer, which was, “In te Domine speravi,” down to “In manus tuas,” inclusive. Then on a sign given, the ladder was turned, and so he was hanged. Then one of the bystanders, before his holy soul left his body, cut the rope, and so falling to the ground, he began for a little space to throb and breathe. Then he was drawn to another adjoining place, where all his garments were violently torn off, and he was again extended naked on the hurdle, on whom immediately the bloody executioner laid his wicked hands. In the first place verenda abscidit, then he cut open his belly, dragged out his bowels, his heart, and all else, and threw them into a fire, during which our most blessed Father not only did not cry out on account of the intolerable pain, but on the contrary, during all this time until his heart was torn out, prayed continually, and bore himself with more than human endurance, most patiently, meekly, and tranquilly, to the wonder not only of the presiding officer, but of all the people who witnessed it. Being at his last gasp, and nearly disembowelled, he cried out with a most sweet voice, “Most sweet Jesu, have pity on me in this hour!” And, as trustworthy men have reported, he said to the tormentor, while in the act of tearing out his heart, “Good Jesu, what will you do with my heart?” and saying this he breathed his last. Lastly, his head was cut off, and the beheaded body was divided into four parts.… Our holy Father having been thus put to death the two other before-named venerable Fathers, Robert and Augustine, with another religious named Reynolds, of the Order of St. Bridget, being subjected to the same most cruel death, were deprived of life, one after another; all of whose remains were thrown into cauldrons and parboiled, and afterwards put up at different places in the city. And one arm of our Father was suspended at the gate of our house.[149]
On the subject of these butcheries Mr. Froude remarks, “But we cannot blame the Government” (ii. 382).
1535. The eighteenth of June, three Monks of the Charter-house at London, named Thomas Exmew, Humfrey Middlemore, and Sebastian Nidigate [Newdigate] were drawen to Tiborne, and there hanged and quartered for denying the Kinges supremacie (Stow, pp. 570-1).