The martyrs

Religious dissent can cause civil strife. That was a view firmly held across Europe from the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine until the Enlightenment, and was a position supported by the fifth-century St Augustine of Hippo, among others.

King Henry VIII (fl. 1509-1547) persecuted Catholics who denied his claim to religious supremacy, and Lutherans who preached eucharistic heresy. King Edward VI (fl. 1547-1553) strove to impose Calvinism on his realm. Elizabeth I (fl. 1558-1603) chose the civil path of reason against those Catholics who too openly opposed her religious settlement. The Stuarts earned the enmity of both Catholics and Puritans in their attempts at creating a religious settlement, leading to the Civil War, while William of Orange, noted in this country as the great Defender of Protestantism, was unable to persuade Parliament to introduce the toleration he had established in his own kingdom across the North Sea.

Martyrdom was usually through hanging, drawing and quartering, a cruel method that involved hanging the victim until he or she was virtually dead, cutting him or her down from the scaffold, cutting open the body and then cutting up the body into pieces.

You can find a full list of the English Martyrs from the period 1535-1681 here.

Martyrs of the Salford Diocese can refer to different groups of people. First, there are those born in the diocese who were martyred or died for their faith in the varying localities where they were caught. Then there are those born elsewhere who died within the diocese, especially in the House of Correction in Manchester in the 1580s or later, whether they worked in our diocesan area or not. Finally there are those born elsewhere, who, having worked in the Salford area, died elsewhere.

Some have been declared martyrs by the Church and are honoured as saints or blessed or venerable. Others have not yet been so recognised. United with them in the communion of Saints, may we be inspired by their example of yesteryear to witness today to our own faith and thus bring the love of Christ into our world.