“Let no man commend for doing it, but rather discommend themselves; for if God had not taken away their hearts for their sins he had not gone so long unpunished.
“That man in my opinion is cowardly and base, and deserveth neither the name of a gentleman nor a soldier, that is unwilling to sacrifice his life for the honour of God and the good of his King and country.—John Felton.” (“Autobiography of Sir Simonds D’Ewes,” i. 385.)
Only one or two priests were executed in England during the first fifteen years of Charles’s reign.
Between 1641 and 1651 the following priests were drawn, hanged, and quartered at Tyburn merely for being priests. No other charge was made against them, but this sufficed:—
1641. July 26. William Ward.
1642. January 21. Thomas Reynolds and Bartholomew Roe.
April 26. Edward Morgan.
October 12. Thomas Bullaker.
December 12. Thomas Holland.