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INTRODUCTION.

Section I. Beatification.

IN presenting the lives of these English Martyrs to the reader, it will be useful to point out as briefly as may be, what is meant by the title "Blessed" which is given to them, and how they came to receive it.

The Catholic Church venerates the memory and invokes the aid of those great servants of God who have passed within the veil, leaving behind them. a renown for remarkable sanctity, but she does not show to them any public honours until their cultus has been solemnly approved by the Holy See; in other words, until their reputed virtues and miracles. have been subjected to a long and rigorous examination and have passed through the ordeal unscathed. Then by a solemn decree the Church proposes these servants of God to her children as models of heroic virtue and as powerful intercessors with Him. The process of canonization has indeed differed at various stages of the Church's history. In the earliest times it remained in the power of the Bishops as Ordinaries to pronounce on the cause

of those who had lived within their jurisdiction, but it was felt comparatively early that a tribunal which could not be swayed by local feeling would be at once more impartial and more authoritative, and from the tenth century we find this investigation. reserved as of right to the Roman Pontiffs. Alexander III. in 1170 decreed that it was not lawful to honour any person publicly as a Saint without the consent of the Holy See.

But the most important legislation on this subject dates from Urban VIII., who in the year 1634 issued a famous Bull in which the process of canonization is minutely prescribed. It will be sufficient here to explain that this long process, which generally lasts a century and more, may be divided into three principal stages. In the first the Bishop of the diocese, where the servant of God is honoured, collects evidence by what is called an "Informative" or "Ordinary Process," in order to satisfy the Holy See that the cause is deserving of attention in the Pope's own Court. If this is found satisfactory at Rome the Pope then issues. a decree ordering the cause of "the venerable servant of God" to be "introduced" before the Sacred Congregation of Rites. From this point the servant of God is described as "Venerable " and may be so invoked, but in private only.

In the second stage, which passes at Rome, a long and stringent examination takes place of the writings (if any exist), of the virtues, and of the miracles ascribed to the Venerable Servant of God. The "Postulators" of the cause are those who

are appointed to plead in his favour, the "Promoter of the Faith" (popularly known as the "Devil's Advocate") is the official whose duty it is to point out any flaws or weak points in the evidence adduced. If the result is favourable the final step is to issue a decree of Beatification, which is solemnly promulgated on an appointed day in the Basilica of St. Peter's.

The Blessed Servant of God (or Beato) can now be publicly venerated. But the veneration shown him is limited and partial; that is to say, his cultus is permitted in a certain country or diocese or religious order, but not throughout the Universal Church. His picture and relics are allowed to be exposed (in a secondary place) on the altars of the Church in those parts but not elsewhere, and it is only within these limits that the recitation of his Office and Mass is permitted. The cultus of a canonized saint, on the other hand, belongs to the Universal Church, and churches and altars can be freely erected in his honour in any part of the world.

For Canonization further investigations are necessary. It must be proved that two more miracles have been worked through the intercession of the Beato1 since the decree of Beatification. When these have been submitted to a like searching investigation and declared to be proved, the

1 It will not be necessary that miracles should be worked at the intercession of each of the 63 Beati. It will be sufficient, for the progress of the cause in its present stage, if those who ask for graces, beg the intercession of "all the Blessed and Venerable Martyrs of England."

splendid ceremony of Canonization can take place, in which the Pope during his solemn Mass, declares and ordains that the servant of God in question shall be inscribed in the register of the Saints, and that his memory shall be celebrated on a given day throughout the Church of God.

Such, in brief, is the process by which the Catholic Church raises to her altars those who have glorified God by the splendour of their sanctity, and on whose blessed lives and deaths the seal of the Divine approval has been set by the manifestation of miraculous signs.

It must not, however, be supposed that this process has been gone through in the case of the 63 English Martyrs whose lives form the subject of this work. Every rule has its exceptions, and here is a case in point. When Urban VIII. completed the legislation of his predecessors by drawing up the elaborate rules which have ever since formed the practice of the Church in the proclamation of the sanctity of her illustrious children, he made certain significant and important exceptions. He declared

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that he did not wish to prejudice the case of those servants of God who were the objects of a cultus arising out of the general consent of the Church, or an immemorial custom, or the writings of the Fathers, or the long and intentional tolerance of the Apostolic See, or the Ordinary."

In such cases the Holy See is wont to grant a decree of "equipollent" or equivalent beatification, or as it is sometimes called, per modum casus excepti; by which she recognizes that the cultus of

the servant of God in question has already been sufficiently approved of, and that the honours due to a Beato may be freely granted him.

Such was the procedure adopted in the case of our 63 Blessed Martyrs.

At first, indeed, it seemed that no exception to rules of Urban VIII. could be proved in their favour. After many such attempts had failed, the zeal and perseverance of the late Father Morris, S.J. (who may justly be called the Apostle of our Martyrs), triumphed over the great difficulties in the way of beginning the long Process in the usual form. In June, 1874, the late Cardinal Manning, as Ordinary of the diocese of Westminster, formally opened the Process, and the Court was held with all due formalities, thanks mainly to the zealous co-operation of the Fathers of the London Oratory. Witnesses as to the lives and fame of the martyrs were heard, and their depositions, together with a duly certified copy of the acts of the court, were forwarded to Rome for examination.

The original Process contained 353 names, and after a delay of 12 years, the Promoter of the Faith finally assented to the introduction of 309 of these. The remaining 44 are called dilati, as the introduction of their cause was delayed for further proof as to martyrdom. They are mainly confessors who died in prison, and the ground of objection is generally that, though they died there, it has not been proved that their death was caused by the rigours of their imprisonment.

While, however, the clients of our martyrs were

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