Lady Dormer, who cautioned her brother as to the dangers of the corruption of the Court. He defended the King, but presently said, "Sister, what shall you say if the next news you hear of me shall be that I am entered to be a monk in the Charterhouse?" "A monk!" she said; "I should be less surprised to see thee hanged!" She lived to see both happen.

When Sebastian found that his sister's fears as to the King's evil designs were indeed too wellfounded, he retired to the Charterhouse. This seems to have been about 1524. His sister thinking it was a mere freak of which he would soon weary, went up to London and advised the Prior not to admit him, for it was most unlikely he would persevere. But the Prior assured her that he gave every promise of becoming an excellent religious, whereupon she praised God, and indeed, on seeing her brother she could not restrain her tears, so greatly was he changed. In a very short time the former gay courtier made rapid strides in perfection and became a model of religious observance. The King visited Blessed Sebastian both in the Marshalsea and in the Tower, and did all he could first by mild speeches and fair promises, and then by menaces and injurious words to make him yield to his will. The martyr, quite unmoved by the King's furious harangue, calmly replied: "When in Court I served your Majesty I did it loyally and faithfully, and so continue still your humble servant, although kept in this prison and bonds. But in matters that belong to the Faith and glory of our

Lord Jesus Christ, to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and the salvation of my poor soul, your Majesty must be pleased to excuse me." The King replied: "Art thou wiser and holier than all the ecclesiastics and seculars of my kingdom?" He answered: "I may not judge of others, nor do I esteem myself either wise or holy, being far short in either; only this I assure myself that the faith and doctrine I profess is no new thing, nor now invented, but always among the faithful held for Christian and Catholic. We must obey God rather than man."1

Blessed Humphrey Middlemore was of a

very ancient Warwickshire family which had its head-quarters at Edgbaston, near Birmingham. The Middlemores acquired Edgbaston by marriage with the heiress of Sir Henry Edgbaston. The family still flourishes in the neighbourhood, and has recently brought out a very handsome and complete family history. From this we glean the following details as to the martyr.

Blessed Humphrey Middlemore is supposed to have been the son of Richard Middlemore, of Edgbaston, Esquire; described in his will as "lord of Eggebaston." He held the manor of Studley and a messuage in Solihull. His will dated 28 November, 1502, was proved 14 March, 1503. He desires to be buried in the Churchyard of St. Bartholomew of Eggebaston. He left money to that church, to Lichfield Cathedral, the guild

1 For further details see my Life of Blessed Sebastian Newdigate (1901).

of the Holy Cross of Birmingham, and that of St. John of Deritend. His wife Margery was daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton, of Coughton, near Studley. After her husband's death she took a solemn vow of chastity with the approval of the Bishop of Lichfield.1

She was henceforth by the Bishop's command, "to be veiled or clad in a cloak, and to be given the habit of widowhood usual to be assigned to widows. of this class at the profession of chastity together with one ring only."

Her will was proved 6 February, 1530.

Of their children we know for certainty only Thomas their heir, and Anne Willington, but most probably William Middlemore, rector of Birdingbury, and Blessed Humphrey are also to be ascribed to them." In no other line of Middlemore does it seem possible to place the martyr, while it is interesting to note that the name of Humphrey was perpetuated by the Edgbaston Middlemores in the person of Humphrey Middlemore, who was born about 1560, less than thirty years after the martyrdom of his namesake, and also in the succeeding generation. It is likely that the Middlemores of Edgbaston, so deeply attached as they were to the Roman obedience, would thus commemorate the martyrdom of the Proctor of the Charterhouse."

1 Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 654.

2 Some account of the Family of Middlemore of Warwickshire and Worcestershire. By W. P. W. Phillimore, M.A., B.C.L. (London). Printed for private circulation, 1901, pp.29 and 35. Gillow, however,

The Recusant Rolls of a later date indicate how they suffered in their possessions for their steadfast adherence to their religion. Curiously enough, one branch of the family settled at Stepney, whither Cromwell had summoned Blessed Humphrey and his companions, and where the offence which brought them to their deaths was said to have. been committed. 'Perhaps this early association of the Blessed Humphrey Middlemore and the later association of his kinsmen with the place may not be unconnected."1

ED.

(Dictionary of English Catholics, vol. v. p. 7), says that Blessed Humphrey was the son of Thomas Middlemore of Edgbaston, by Ann, daughter of Richard Lyttleton, of Pillerton Hall, Staffordshire, ancestor of the Barons Hatherton.

1 Phillimore, p. 264.

V.

THE BLESSED JOHN FISHER,

BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, AND CARDINAL.

Tower Hill, 22 June, 1535.

THE Blessed John Fisher was born at Beverley, in Yorkshire, and was the son of Robert and Agnes Fisher, who were mercers in that town. They had four children, of whom John was apparently the youngest, and about seven years old when his father died. His birth has usually been placed in the year 1459, but it was probably ten years later.1

He received his early education in his native town, where there was a grammar school connected with the collegiate Church of St. John, and in 1483 was sent to Cambridge. At the University he was placed under the care of William de Melton, fellow of Michael House, a College which occupied part of the site of the present Trinity, and was afterwards absorbed in that great foundation.

In more than one place of his writings Fisher

1 See Van Ortroy, p. 82, note. His father's will is printed Lewis-Turner, Life of John Fisher, though it is wrongly dated. (The real date is 1477.) The error is corrected in the body of the work, vol. i. p. 3. The will has been preserved for us by Thomas Baker, and can be seen in the British Museum. (Harl. 7030.)