Polydore Plasden (1563–1591) was one of the Catholic

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales or Cuthbert Mayne and Thirty-Nine Companion Martyrs are a group of Catholic Church, Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under variou ...

. A native of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, he studied for the priesthood at

Rheims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and was ordained in 1586 before being sent back to England soon after.

Life

Polydore Plasden was born in 1563, the son of a London horner. He was educated at the

, and at the English College at Rome, where he was ordained priest on 7 December 1586. He remained at Rome for more than a year, and then was at Rheims from 8 April till 2 September 1588, when he was sent on the mission. While at Rome he had signed a petition for the retention of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

as superiors of the English College, but in England he was considered to have suffered injury through their agency. Plasden ministered in Sussex and in London from 1588 to 1591. On 2 November 1591, he was captured by

priest hunter A priest hunter was a person who, acting on behalf of the English and later British government, spied on or captured Catholic priests during Penal Times. Priest hunters were effectively bounty hunters. Some were volunteers, experienced soldiers ...

Richard Topcliffe Richard Topcliffe (14 November 1531 – late 1604)Richardson, William. "Topcliffe, Richard (1531–1604)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, « Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008. Accessed 26 July 2013. ...

at the house of

Swithun Wells Swithun Wells (c. 1536 – 10 December 1591) was an English Roman Catholic martyr who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I. Wells was a country gentleman and one time schoolmaster whose family sheltered hunted p ...

Gray's Inn Lane Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in Central London, located in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at its junction with Holborn at the City of London boundary, passes north through the Holborn and King's Cross, ...

,Wainewright, J., "Ven. Swithin Wells", ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', Vol. 15.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912, Retrieved 3 August 2018. a centre of hospitality for

recusants Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

, where

Edmund Gennings Edmund Gennings (1567 – 10 December 1591), was an English martyr, who was executed during the English Reformation for being a Roman Catholic priest. He came from Lichfield, Staffordshire. Life Gennings was born at Lichfield in 1567. A thoug ...

was celebrating

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. As Topcliffe and his men attempted to break in, some of the congregation held the door closed until the Mass concluded, at which point they surrendered peacefully. Wells was not present, but he and his wife, along with Sydney Hodgson, and John Mason (with the possible exception of Brian Lacey) were condemned as traitors. Mrs. Wells was reprieved, and died in prison in 1602. On 6 December, together with

and Eustace White (priests), and Sydney Hodgson,

, and John Mason (laymen), he was tried before the King's Bench, and condemned for coming into England contrary to the Jesuits, etc. Act 1584. All were executed on the same day: Gennings and Wells opposite the house of the latter at Gray's Inn Lane; Plasden, White, Hodgson, and Mason at Tyburn. At his execution on 10 December 1591, Plasden acknowledged

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

as his lawful queen, whom he would defend to the best of his power against all her enemies, and he prayed for her and the whole realm, but said that he would rather forfeit a thousand lives than deny or fight against his religion. Sentenced to be

hanged, drawn, and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a method of torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of high treason in medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland. The convicted traitor was fastened by the feet to a h ...

Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellio ...

ordered that he be allowed to hang till he was dead, to spare him the suffering that followed.Camm O.S.B., Bede. ''The One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn'', p. 77
London: Burns & Oates, 1917. He was

beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...

in 1929, and was

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sa ...

in 1970 by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

References

External links

"Decree Of The Sacred Congregation Of Rites, On the Introduction of the Cause of Beatification or Declaration of Martyrdom, of Two Hundred and Sixty-One Venerable Servants of God, Who Were Put to Death in England for The Faith", ''The Tablet'', 2 April 1887, p. 33.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plasden, Polydore 1591 deaths 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests Forty Martyrs of England and Wales English Roman Catholic saints People executed under Elizabeth I by hanging, drawing and quartering Executed people from London 16th-century Christian saints 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 1563 births