Today's saints have been absorbed into the "Forty Martyrs of England and Wales" celebrated on October 26. But their story is so good it's nice to celebrate it today. In many ways it was the same old temptation: cooperate with the devil in order to get along. In other ways it must have seemed confusingly new. Here they were, these 18 men, 18 among 37, living a quiet -- even silent -- life outside the world, bothering no one, just supporting themselves in their life of prayer. What could be more harmless? Less threatening? But evil, even as it is lived in our incarnate selves, is ever the enemy of the good, and King Henry VIII and his minions wanted the good Carthusians on their side. So they made them sign the Act of Succession (after 8 months of non-molestation). One of them, the prior John Houghton, innocently said he really didn't see why Henry's long-standing and properly solemnized marriage with Catherine could suddenly become invalid. On the basis of this statement, he and his aide Humphrey Middlemore were thrown into the Tower. Two weeks later they were released. The monks really had no beef concerning whoever succeeded Henry to the throne and so they signed it. But the prior saw in a dream that he would be imprisoned again within a year's time and so he was.
The momentous occasion for that was the much more egregious Act of Supremacy, stating that Henry was the supreme head of the Church in England. Even then the monks didn't summarily reject it. Much less did the prior force rejection down their throats. Instead, he called for three days of prayer and on the third day a gentle breeze was miraculously experienced by all, and they peacefully and unanimously rejected the Act of Supremacy. John, Robert Lawrence, Augustine Webster, the Brigittine monk Richard Reynolds (who looked like an angel, we're told) and the secular priest John Haile were summarily tried and sentenced to death (reluctantly by the jury, spurred on by Cromwell). The trial was held April 29th; they were hung and disemboweled on May 4th, and their hearts ripped out while they were still alive.
Their successors at the Carthusian monastery were not spared either. Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate were all arrested and chained neck and feet to posts such that they could neither sit nor lie down -- for two whole weeks! Newdigate, too, was tormented further by having to endure the King himself, in disguise, coming to his prison (Marshalsea) and trying to convince him to sign. Why did the King need his approval? Why this insecurity? Perhaps in his heart of hearts Henry knew he had no case and needed the support of good and holy men to justify himself. Well, in any case, he didn't get it. All three men were executed June 19. That brings the total to 8.
Meanwhile, back at the monastery, all was not well. The monks, being now leaderless, were subjected to the humiliating priorship of a monk from Sheen, who had signed the Act of Supremacy. By May 18, 1537, they were so broken in spirit, 19 monks signed it. But 10 held out, and these were made a horrible example of. They were imprisoned and starved to death in a bunker in Marshalsea. One, William Horn, survived and was removed to the Tower for three years, then executed there in 1540. He is the last in this roll of honor.
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