Cuthbert Mayne
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| Saint Cuthbert Mayne | |
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| Forty Martyrs of England and Wales | |
| Born | c. 1543, Yorkston, near Barnstaple in Devon |
| Died | November 29, 1577, Launceston |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | December 29, 1886 by Pope Leo XIII |
| Canonized | October 25, 1970 by Pope Paul VI |
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 Saints Portal |
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Saint Cuthbert Mayne (1544 – 1577) was a Roman Catholic priest and martyr.
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[edit] Early life
Mayne was born at Yorkston, near Barnstaple in Devon, the son of William Mayne, and baptized on March 20, 1543/4, St Cuthbert's day. His uncle was a priest who conformed to the Church of England, and the family expected the good natured, shallow Mayne would inherit his uncle's rich church. This uncle paid his way to Barnstaple Grammar School, and he was ordained a Protestant minister at the age of eighteen or nineteen and instituted rector of Huntshaw, near his birthplace. After ordination, Mayne attended university, first at St Alban's Hall, then at St John's College, in Oxford, where he was made chaplain. He became B.A. on April 6, 1566 and M.A. on April 8, 1570.
[edit] Catholic conversion
At Oxford, Mayne met Edmund Campion and other Catholics, such as Gregory Martin, Humphrey Ely, Henry Shaw, Thomas Bramston, Henry Holland, Jonas Meredith, Roland Russell, and William Wiggs. At some point Mayne, too, became a Catholic. Late in 1570, a letter addressed to him from Gregory Martin fell into the hands of the Bishop of London, and officers arrested him and the others mentioned in the letter. Being warned off by Thomas Ford, Mayne evaded arrest by going to Cornwall and then, in 1573, to the English College at Douai.
Mayne was ordained a priest at Douai in 1575 and on February 7 in the following year he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Theology of Douai University. Shortly afterwards, on April 24, 1576, he left for the English mission in the company of another priest, John Paine. He soon took up his abode with Francis Tregian, in St Probus's parish, Cornwall. Tregian later suffered imprisonment and loss of possessions harboring a Roman Catholic priest.
Elizabeth I's agents quickly became aware of Mayne's presence in the area, and the authorities began a systematic search for him in June 1576, when the Bishop of Exeter William Broadbridge came to the area. High sheriff Sir Richard Grenville, a noted anti-Catholic officer, conducted a raid on Tregian's house on June 8, 1577, during which the crown officers "bounced and beat at the door" to Mayne's chamber. On gaining entry, Grenville discovered a Catholic devotional article (see [1]), an Agnus Dei around Mayne's neck, and took him into custody along with his books and papers.
[edit] Imprisonment and trial
While awaiting trial at the circuit assizes in September, Mayne was imprisoned in Launceston gaol, being chained to his bedposts. The authorities sought a death sentence but had difficulty in framing a treason indictment to that end. At the opening of the trial on September 23, 1577 there were five counts against him: first, that he had obtained from the Roman See a "faculty" (or bulla), containing absolution of the Queen's subjects; second, that he had published the same at Golden; third, that he had taught the ecclesiastical authority of the Pope and denied the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy while in prison; fourth, that he had brought into the kingdom an Agnus Dei and delivered it to Francis Tregian; fifth, that he had celebrated Mass.
Mayne answered all counts. On the first and second counts, he said that the supposed "faculty" was merely a copy printed at Douai of an announcement of the Jubilee of 1575, and that its application having expired with the end of the jubilee, he certainly had not published it either at Golden or elsewhere. On the third count, he said that he had asserted nothing definite on the subject to the three illiterate witnesses who swore to the contrary. On the fourth count, he said that the fact he was wearing an Agnus Dei at the time of his arrest did not establish that he had brought it into the kingdom or delivered it to Tregian. On the fifth count, he said that the presence of a Missal, a chalice, and vestments in his room did not establish that he had said Mass.
The trial judge, Justice Sir Roger Manwood[1], directed the jury to return a verdict of guilty, stating that, "where plain proofs were wanting, strong presumptions ought to take place". The circumstantial case, in other words, was to be sufficient to prove the indictments. The jury found Mayne guilty of high treason on all counts, and accordingly he was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. Mayne responded, "Deo gratias".
With him had been arraigned Francis Tregian and eight other laymen. The eight were sentenced to seizure of their goods and life imprisonment, Tregian to die (in fact he spent 26 years in prison).
After the sentencing, Judge Jeffries took exception to the proceedings and referred the matter to the Privy Council. The Council submitted the case to the whole bench of judges, which was inclined to leniency on the grounds of the flimsiness of the evidence. Nevertheless, the council ordered the execution to proceed. On the night of November 27 Mayne's cell was reported by his fellow prisoners to have become full of a "great light".
[edit] Execution
Before being brought to the place of execution, Mayne was offered his life in return for a renunciation of his religion and an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the queen as head of the church. Declining both offers, he kissed a copy of the Bible, declaring that, "the queen neither ever was, nor is, nor ever shall be, the head of the church of England".
A special, high gibbet was erected in the marketplace at Launceston, and Mayne was executed there on November 29, 1577. He was not allowed to speak to the crowd, but only to say his prayers quietly. Just as he was about to be hanged, he refused to implicate his co-religionists. It is unclear if he died on the gibbet. One source states that he was cut down alive, but in falling struck his head against the butcher's scaffold. In any case, he was unconscious during the disembowelling.
[edit] Legacy
Relics of Mayne's body survive in various locations. He was the first "seminary priest", the group of priests who were trained not in England but in houses of studies on the Continent. He was also one of the group of prominent Catholic martyrs of the persecution who were later designated as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
There are many memorials to him in Launceston, and the Catholic Church there is named after him.
Mayne was beatified "equipollently" by Pope Leo XIII, by means of a decree of December 29, 1886 and was canonized along with the other Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI on October 25, 1970.
[edit] References
- The most reliable compact source is Godfrey Anstruther, Seminary Priests, St Edmund's College, Ware, vol. 1, 1968, pp. 224-226.
- Bishop Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests and other Catholics of both sexes that have suffered death in England on religious accounts from the year 1577 to 1684 (Manchester 1803) pp.7ff.
- This article incorporates text from the article "Cuthbert Mayne" by John B. Wainewright from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia (a publication now in the public domain), heavily reworked and supplemented.
