John Forest
Roman Catholic Church | |
---|---|
Beatified | 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII |
Feast | 22 May |
Attributes | Franciscan habit, crucifix, martyr's palm, chains, being burnt above a burning statue |
John Forest (1471 – 22 May 1538) was an English Franciscan friar and martyr. Confessor to
Life
Born in the Oxford area in 1471, John Forest became a
The King was eager to gain the sanction of learned men and of those esteemed highly to his plans in regard to the Church. Wealth and honours were offered to those who complied. Those who resisted were threatened.[2] From 1531 the Friars Minor had gained the enmity of the King by opposing his divorce and his movements toward Protestantism.[3]
In November, 1532, as Guardian of the Greenwich friary, Forest spoke to the friars of the plans the King had to suppress the Order in England and denounced from the pulpit at
Despite initially recanting, Forest was detained at Newgate Prison, on the basis of denial of the king's supremacy, together with several other Friars, who persuaded him to stand fast in his Roman Catholic beliefs.[5] His confinement, therefore, was not strict, and he was allowed to celebrate mass and hear confessions.[6] From this confinement he could correspond with the Queen and he also wrote a tract entitled De auctoritate Ecclesiae et Pontificis maximi ("On the Authority of the Church and the Supreme Pontiff"), defending both the papal primacy and the independence of the Church from control by the State. He was denounced to the King for this tract and also for refusing to swear the Oath of Supremacy demanded by Cromwell.[4]
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Hugh Latimer acted as a team on Cromwell's behalf in the proceedings which led to the friar's destruction. Forest was condemned for high treason and heresy, the latter for opposing the King's policy of Caesaropapism.[7]
In accordance with the custom of the time, Bishop Latimer was selected to preach a final sermon at the place of execution urging recantation. In the end, Forest was burnt to death at Smithfield, London on 22 May 1538,[8] where he was suspended over the fire in chains. John Forest was the only Catholic martyr to be burned at the stake during the English Reformation.[4] Extra fuel for the pyre is said to have been provided by an enormous statue of St. Derfel from the pilgrimage site of Llandderfel in north Wales, and of which it was prophesied, would "one day set a forest on fire."[9]
Veneration
Forest, together with 53 other English martyrs, was
There is a statue of Forest in the nave of St. Ethelreda's Church in Ely Place, London.
There is a mosaic of Forest in the Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church,
There are stained glass windows of the martyr in the following churches:
- Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Hills Road, Cambridge[11]
- Shrewsbury Cathedral, he is the first figure on the fifth window, next to Edmund Campion.[12]
References
- ^ Gasquet, Francis Aidan (1906). enry VIII and the English Monasteries. G. Bell. p. 57. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Camm O.S. B., Dom Bede. "Blessed John Forest". Lives of the English Martyrs Declared Blessed by Pope Leo XIII, Vol. I, p. 274, Longmans, Green and Co., London 1914
- ^ a b Thaddeus, Fr. "Blessed John Forest." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 Mar. 2013
- ^ a b c "Blessed John Forest 1471 – 1538", Saints and Blesseds of the OFM Province in Britain
- ^ Demaus, Robert. (1904) Hugh Latimer: a biography. Religious Tract Society, London, United Kingdom. Page 293
- ^ Trice 1889.
- ^ Gasquet 1906, p. 58, n.1.
- ISBN 0-300-10828-1, page 404
- ^ "Three Saints, Two Wells & a Welsh Parish by Tristan Gray Hulse". Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
- ^ Budby (14 May 2014), [23148] Holy Name (RC), Manchester : Blessed John Forest, retrieved 2 November 2022
- ^ Knott, Simon (2 June 2016), Blessed John Forest and Blessed Augustine Webster, retrieved 2 November 2022
- ^ Thomson, Aidan McRae (30 June 2012), English Martyrs, Shrewsbury Cathedral, retrieved 2 November 2022
External links
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Martin, Charles Trice (1889). "Forest, John". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 19. London: Smith, Elder & Co.