Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/763

 THOMAS

697

THOMASSIN

absence; and that the emperor felt unable to do wit hout his aid at home. The writings of St. Thomas, mainly sermons, are replete with practical norms of mystic theology. Some twenty editions have been pubUshed, the best and most complete being prob- ably that of Manila, 1SS2-1S84. in 5 tomes.

S.vLON. Vita (Milan, 18S0): M.viMBorRG, Life, republished in London bv the Oratorians. and in Philadelphia in 1874; Dabert, Hiatoire (Paris and Lyons, 1852) ; Ciwiad de Dios (Valladolid and Madrid. IS82>. EdW.^RD G. DoHAN.

Thomas Percy, Blessed, Earl of Northumberland, martyr, b. in 1528; d. at York, 22 August, 1.572. He w;is the eldest son of Sir Thomas Percy, brother of the childless Henrj' Percy, sixth Earl of Xorthumberland, and Eleanor, daughter of Sir Guiscard Harbottal. When Thomas was eight years old his father was executed at Tyburn (2 June, 1537) for ha\'ing taken a leading part in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and he also is considered a martyr by many. Thomas and his brother Henry were then removed from their mother's keeping and entrusted to Sir Thomas Tempest.

In 1549, when Thomas Percy came of age, an Act was passed "for the restitution in blood of Mr. Thomas Percy". Shortly afterwards he was knighted, and, three years later, in Queen Marj's reign, he re- gained his ancestral honours and lands. Declared governor of Pnidhoe Castle he besieged and took Scarborough Castle, which was seized by rebels in 1557. In reward the Earldom of Northumberland together with the Baronies of Percy, Pojniings, Lucy, Bn.an, and Fitzpane were restored to him. He was installed at ^\'hitehall with great pomp, and soon after was named Warden General of the Marches, in which capacity he fought and defeated the Scots. In 1558 he married Anne Somerset, daughter of the Earl of Worcester, a valiant woman who subsequently suffered much for the Faith.

On Elizabeth's accession the earl, whose steadfast loyalty to the Catholic Church was known, was kept in the North while the anti-Catholic measures of Elizabeth's first Parliament were passed. Elizabeth continued to show him favour, and in 1563 gave him the Order of the Garter. He had then resigned the wardenship and was li\4ng in the South. But the systematic persecution of the Catholics rendered their position most difficult, and in the autumn of 1569 the Catholic gentrj' in the North, stirred up by nmiours of the approaching excommunication of Ehzabeth, were planning to liberate Marj-, Queen of Scots, and obtain liberty of worship. Earl Thomas with the Earl of Westmoreland wrote to the pope asking for ad\-ice, but before their letter reached Rome circumstances hurried them into action against their better judgment. After a brief success the rising failed, and Thomas fled to Scotland, where he was captured and, after three years, sold to the English Government. He was conducted to York and be- headed, refusing to save his life by abandoning his religion. He was beatified by Leo XIII on 13 May, 1S95, and his festival w.as appointed to be observed in the Dioceses of Hexham and Newcastle on 14 No- vember. His daughter Marj- founded the Benedictine convent at Brus.sels from which nearly all the existing houses of Benedictine nuns in England are flescended.

Phillips in Camm, Lirrs of thf English Mnrt^in^, expanding and correctina the same author's pamphlet BlefxM Tkomns Perrn in Catholic Truth Socirty, II (Ixindon. 190.tI. iii. 18.5: State

Pf.rct in Collins. Peerage of Englantl, II (London, 1779); Deponiiionfi an/1 EeetesiaMical Procerdinga from the Courtf of Durham (Ix>ndon, 184.5): BRinOEWATER, Concertatio eeetesift ealholiea in Angtia (Trier, 1.58.8); .Shabpe, Memorials of the Rebellion of IS69 (Ix)ndon. 1840). EdWIN BuRTON.

Thomas Reddyng, Blessed. See Thomas Johnson. Blessed.

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

Thomas Sherwood, Blessed, martyr, b. in Lon- don, 1.551; d. at Tyburn, London, 7 February, 1578. His parents also suffered for their conscience, both enduring imprisonment for the Faith. After leaving school in 1566, Thomas assisted his father, a London woollen draper, for about ten years; then, feeling that his vocation was to the priesthood, he made arrange- ments to go to Douay College and was in London settling his affairs, and obtaining the means for his support and education. While so engaged he was recognized in Chancery Lane and betrayed by George Marten, son of Lady Tregonwell. Being examined before the Recorder as to his opinion of the Bull of Pius V and as to whether an excommunicated queen held lawful sovereignty, he denied all knowledge of both Bull and excommunication, but expres.sed his opinion that if the queen were indeed excommuni- cated her rule could not be lawful. He was detained at Westminster, where the attorney-general visited him and found him constant in that opinion. On 17 November, 1577, he was committed to the Tower by the Privy Council to be retained close prisoner, from conference with any person, and if he did not willingly confess such things as were demanded of him, he was to be committed to the dungeon among.st the rats. He was repeatedly examined, and twice racked in order to elicit where he had hea.rd Mass and who had been present thereat, but his constancy was unshaken. After being racked, he was cast into a dark and fetid dungeon, where he was kept abso- lutely without clothes, without food, and with noth- ing but the bare earth to lie upon. His friends were not allowed to supply his needs, and the utmost con- cession that William Komper could obtain was per- mission to supply him with .straw to lie upon. He was brought to trial on 3 February, and pronounced guilty of high treason for denying the queen's su- premacy; four days later he was executed. He was a man of good wit and judgment and, being well in- structed in religious matters, was very helpful to many poor Catholics. Small in st.ature, he was of healthy constitution and of a cheerful disposition, which he maintained even amidst his torture.

Vatican Archirea; Persons, Memoirs in Calh. Rer. Soc. II (London, 1906), documents in the Public Record Office: Tower Bills in Cath. Rec. Soc. Ill; Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891) ; Challoner, Memoir) of the Missionary Priests.

J. L. Whitfield.

Thomassin, Lon.s, theologian and French Ora- torian, b. at Aix-en-Provence 28 Aug., 1619; d. in Paris, 24 Dec, 1695. At the age of thirteen he entered the Oratory and for some j-ears was professor of htera- ture in various colleges of the congregation, of theolog\- at Sau- mur, and finally in the seminary of Saint Magloire, in Paris, where he re- mained until his death. His chief works are: "An- cienne et nouvello discipline de r^glise touchant les b^n^fices et les bdn<>ficiers" (3 vols, in fol., Paris, 1678-79). which passe through sever French and Latin editions and several .abridg- ments; "Dogmatum theologicorum. . . de Incar- natione, de Dei proprietatibus. . . .etc." (3 vols.