Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/753

 THOMAS

689

THOMAS

Thomas Ford, Blessed, b. in Devonshire; ri. at Tybarn, 28 May, 1582. He incepted M.A. at Trin- ity College, Oxford, 14 July, 1567, and was a fellow. Woods says president, of the college. He went to the English College, Douai, in 1570, and was one of the first three of its students to be ordained, receiving all orders m March, 1573, at Brussels. After becoming B.D. at Douai he left for England, 2 May, 1576, and soon became chaplain to Eriward Yate and his Bridg- ettine guests at Lj-ford, Berkshire. Arrested with Blessed Edmund Campion (q. v.) 17 July, 15S1, and committed to the Tower 22 July, he was thrice tor- tured. He was brought before the Queen's Bench 16 November, with his fellow mart>T Blessed John Shert, on an absurd charge of conspiracy at Rome and Reims, where he had never been, on dates when he was in England, and both were condemned 21 No- vember. With him suffered John Shert and Robert Johnson.

John Shert, Blessed, a native of Cheshire, took the degree of B. A. at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1566. Successively schoolmaster in London, and ser- vant to Dr. Thomas Stapleton at Douai, he entered the seminary in 1576, and was ordained subdeacon. He was ordained priest from the English College, Rome, of which he was senior of the first six scholars. He left Reims for England 27 August, 1579, and was sent to the Tower, 14 July, 15S1.

Robert Johnson, Ble.ssed, b. in Shropshire, en- tered the German College, Rome, 1 Oct., 1571. Or- dained priest at Brussels from the EngUsh College Douai, in April, 1576, he started immediately for Eng- land. After a pilgrimage to Rome in 1579 he re- turned to England in 1580, and was committed to the Poultry Counter 12 July, whence he was transferred to the Tower 5 Dec. On 16 December he was terribly racked, and then thrust into an underground dungeon. He was brought before the Queen's Bench 14 Nov., and condemned 20 Nov.

Keogh and Camm. Lives of the English Martyrs (London, 1904-5). II, 443^90; Hart in -Appendix to Sander, De Origine. elr. Sehismalis AngKcani fUome. 1589); Allen, Brie/c Historie, ed. Pollen (London, 1908). 57-66; Challoner, Missionary Priests, noa. 9. 10. 11; Gillow, Bibl. Did. Eng. Cath., a. v.. Ford. Thomas. Johnson. Robert; Cooper, in Did. Nat. Biog.. s. v., Forde. Thomas: Calh. Rec. Soc. I, II. III. IV. V, IX; Simpson, Edmund Campion (London. 1$9(^).

John B. Wainewright.

Thomas Green, Blessed. See Thomas John- son, Blessed.

Thomas Johnson, Blessed, Carthusian mart\T, d. in Newgate gaol, London, 20 Sept., 15.37. On IS Al.ay, 1537, the twenty choir monks and eighteen brothers remaining in the London Charterhouse were required to take the Oath of Supremacy. Of these choir monks Thomas Johnson, Richard Bere, Thomas Green (priests), and John Davy (deacon), refused; and of the brothers Robert Salt, William Greenwood, Thomas Redyng, Thomas Scryven, Walter Pierson, and Wil- liam Home. On 29 May all were sent to Newgate, where they were chained standing and with their hands tied behind them to posts in the pri.son, and so left to die of starvation. However Margaret Clement, who as Marg.aret Giggs h.ad been brought up in the household of Blessed Thom.as More, bribed the gaoler to let her have access to the prisoners, and disguised herself as a milkmaid and carried in a milk-can full of meat, wherewith she fed them. After the king's in- quiry as to whether they were not already dead, the gaoler was afraid to let her enter again; but she was allowed to go on the roof, and uncovering the tiles, she let down meat in a basket as near as she could to their mouths. However they could get little or nothing from the b.a,sket, and as the gaoler feared discovery even this plan was soon discontinued. Greenwood died first (6 June), then Dav\- (.S June), Salt (9 June), Pierson and Green (10 June), .Scryven (15 Jime), Redyng (16 June). It is prob.able that then Cromwell XIV.-^

interfered and ordered those still living to be given food in order that they might be preserved for execu- tion; for Bere did not die till 9 August, nor Johnson till 20 September. Home survived, and, though he could never be induced to quit his religious habit, was not attainted till 1540, when he was hanged, disem- bowelled, and quartered at Tyburn (4 August) with the five PrcFlermissi Robert Bird (layman), LawTence Cook (Carmelite Prior of Doncaster), Thomas Emp- son (Benedictine), Giles Heron (layman), and prob- ably with W^illiam Bird (Rector of Fittleton and Vicar of Bradford, Wiltshire). All ten Carthusians were beatified by Leo XIII on 29 Dec, 1886. Blessed Richard Bere was a nephew of Richard Bere (Abbot of Glastonbury 149.3-1.525), and became a Carthusian on 20 Feb., 1523. Bles.sed Thomas Green has been identified by Dom Bede Camm with Thomas Green- wood (B. A., Oxon, M..\., Cantab, 1511), who be- came Fellow of St. John's College Cambridge in 1515 and D.D. in 1532.

Keoqh and Camm, in Lives of the English Martyrs, ed, Camm, I (London, 1904), 257-68; Hendriks, The London Charterhouse (London, 1889), passim.

John B. Wainewright.

Thomas Marshall, Blessed. See Beche, John, Blessed.

Thomas More, Blessed, knight. Lord Chancellor of England, author and martyr, b. in London, 7 February, 1477-78; executed at "Tower Hill, 6 Jul}', 1535. He was the sole surviving son of Sir John More, barrister and later judge, by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Graunger. While still a child Thomas was sent to St. .Anthony's School in Thread- needle Street, kept bj- Nicholas Holt, and when thirteen years old was placed in the household of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor. Here his merry character .ind bril- liant intellect attracted the notice of the archbishop, who sent him to Ox^ford, where he entered at Canter- bury Hall (subsequently absorbed by Christ Church) about 1492. His father made him an allowance barely sufficient to supply the necessaries of life and, in con- sequence, he had no opiJOrtunity to indulge in "vain or hurtful amusements" to the detriment of his stud- ies. At Oxford he made friends with William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre, the latter becoming his first instructor in Greek. Without ever becoming an exact scholar he mastered Greek "by an instinct of genius" as witnessed by Pace (De fructu qui ex doctrina percipitiu", 1517), who adds "his eloquence is incomparable and twofold, for he speaks with the same facility in Latin as in his own language". Be- sides the classics he studied French, history, and mathematics, and also learned to play the flute and the viol, .\fter two years' residence at Oxford, More was recalled to London and entered as a law student at New Inn about 1494. In February, 1496, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn as a student, .and in due course was called to the outer bar and subsequently made a bencher. His great abilities now began to attract attention and the governors of Lincoln's Inn appointed him "reader" or lecturer on Law at Furni- vai's Inn, his lectures being esteemed .so highly that the appointment was renewed for three successive years.

It is clear however that law did not absorb all More's energies, for much of his time was given to letters. He WTote poetry, both Latin and English, a considerable amount of which h.a.s been preserved and is of good quality, though not particularly striking, and he was especially devoted to the works of Pico della Mirandoia, of whose life he published an English translation some years later. He cultivated the acquaintance of scholars and learned men and, through his former tutors, Grocyn and Linacre, who were now living in London, he made friends with Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, and William Lilly, both