John Payne (martyr)

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Saint

John Payne
Leo XIII
Canonized25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI
Feast2 April, 25 October

John Payne (1532–1582) was an English

Catholic priest and martyr, one of the Catholic Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.[1]

Background

John Payne was born at

Archbishop of Cambrai on 7 April 1576.[3]

Ministry

Shortly afterwards, on 24 April 1576, he left for the English mission in the company of another priest,

Lord Mayor of the City of London, at Ingatestone, Essex, in whose house was a "priest hole",[4] but also in London. The missioner passed as a steward of Lady Petre.[4] Shortly after his arrival he converted (or re-converted) to Catholicism George Godsalve or Godsalf, of the diocese of Bath, a man who had gained the B.A. at Oxford and had been ordained a deacon in the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary, but who had then become a Protestant. Payne sent Godsalf to Douai, where he arrived on 15 July 1576 to be prepared for the Catholic priesthood, which he was to receive at Cambrai on 22 December. Payne himself was arrested at Ingatestone and imprisoned early in 1577, but was soon released and went back to Douai that November. From there he probably returned to Ingatestone before Christmas, 1579.[3]

Arrest

Early in July 1581, he and Godsalf, who had come to England in June 1577, were arrested in Warwickshire whilst staying on the estate of Lady Petre (widow of William Petre), through the efforts of the informer George "Judas" Eliot (a criminal, murderer, rapist and thief, who made a career out of denouncing Catholics and priests for bounty). After being examined by Walsingham at Greenwich, they were committed to the Tower of London on 14 July.[3] Godsalf did not give in but spent several years in prison, after which he was released from the Marshalsea in September 1585 and banished, dying in Paris in 1592.

Eliot had insinuated himself into a position in the Petre household where he then proceeded to embezzle sums of money. He enticed a young woman from the Roper household and then appealed to Father Payne to marry them; and on his refusal determined to be revenged and make a profit as well.[4]

As to Payne, a more significant catch, he was racked on the Council's orders on 14 August, and again on 31 October. On 20 March 1582 he was abruptly woken, taken from his cell half dressed and delivered by the Lieutenant of the Tower,

Sir Owen Hopton (c. 1524–1591) of Cockfield Hall in Suffolk to officers waiting to take him to Chelmsford jail,[2]
not being allowed to return to the cell to get his purse - which was purloined by the Lieutenant's wife, Anne Echyngham.

Trial

Payne was indicted at Chelmsford on 22 March on a charge of treason for conspiring to murder the Queen and her leading officers and install Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne. Payne denied the charges, and affirmed his loyalty to the Queen in all that was lawful (i.e. not contrary to his Catholicism or allegiance to the Pope), contesting the reliability of Eliot. No attempt was made to corroborate Eliot's story,[2] which had already been rehearsed in large part at the trial of Edmund Campion on 20 November 1581. The guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion.

Execution

At his execution on the morning of the Monday 2 April (nine months after his imprisonment), he was dragged from prison on a hurdle to the place of execution and first prayed on his knees for almost half an hour and then kissed the scaffold, made a profession of faith and declared his innocence. Reinforcements had been sent from London to help the execution run smoothly.

quartering until he was dead.[5] The executioner, Simon Bull, was meanwhile rebuked for dithering over the quartering in case Payne revive and suffer further.[6]

Beatification and canonisation

John Payne was one of the group of prominent Catholic martyrs of the persecution who were later designated as the

Paul VI
on 25 October 1970.

Schools and churches

A Roman Catholic secondary school in Chelmsford town centre (towards Broomfield) is now named after him. The name of the school is St John Payne Catholic School.

The Roman Catholic church of St John Payne is found on Colchester's Greenstead estate. Founded in 1972, the Parish of Greenstead, Ardleigh and Mistley serves the community on the Essex-Suffolk border, with St John Payne being the Parish Church.

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-4185-3981-8
    .
  2. ^ a b c Stanton, Richard, A Menology of England and Wales, p.140, Burns & Oates, Ltd., London, 1892
  3. ^ a b c Wainewright, John. "Bl. John Payne." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 4 Feb. 2013
  4. ^ a b c Camm OSB, Bede, Lives of the English Martyrs, p.429, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1914
  5. ISSN 0031-2746
    .
  6. ^ Challoner, Richard. Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Thomas Richardson & son, 1843, p. 90Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Sources

The most reliable compact source is Godfrey Anstruther, Seminary Priests, St Edmund's College, Ware, vol. 1, 1968, pp. 133–134, 311–313.

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