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 BARLETTA

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BARLOW

Barletta, Diocese of. See Tr-^ni and Barletta.

Barlings, Abbey of, located about six miles E.\.E. of Lincoln, England, founded in 1154 in honour of Our Lady by Ralph de Haye who had given some lands to the Abbot of Xewhouse (also in Lincolnshire, the first abbey of the Norbertine Order erected in England, founded in 11-13) witn the request to send a colony of White Canons to Barlings. The abbey was afterwards removed to Oxeney, another locality in the same township, where it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1.537. Much information concerning the Abbey of Barlings, as well as concerning other Norbertine abbeys in England, may be derived from Bishop Redman's "Register of Visitations", preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and lately published in three volumes by Abbot Gasquet under the title of "Col- lectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia ". This register contains various documents, lists of White Canons in each abbey, notes and remarks made at the time of each visitation, during a period of about thirty- five years that Redman was visitor of all the Nor- bertine abbeys and priories in England for the Abbot-General of the Order of Premontre. Richard Redman was Abbot of the Norbertine .\bbey of Shap in Westmoreland when he became visitor, and he acted in the same capacity when he succes- sively became Bishop of St. Asaph in 1472, of Exeter in 1495, and of Ely in 1501. He died 24 August, 1505.

This register records no fewer than nine visitations of Barlings .\bbey made by Redman. The various lists found therein give the names of about eighteen canons at each visitation. The names of nineteen abbots are known; the first abbot was called Adam (1154), the last Matthew Mackarel (1532-37) who is said to have been one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace in Lincolnshire. The supposed complicity of Abbot Mackarel, like tliat of other heads of retisiious houses, gave Hepry VIII tlie opportunity of laying hands upon the Abbey of Barlings and of placing it under the law of attainder. The abbey church. 300 feet in length, was defaced, the lead torn from the roofs, and melted down under the special direction of Cromwell. Abbot Mackarel, some of his religious, and many of the clergy and laity were taken to Lin- coln, and some of these were afterwards sent to the Tower in London. Those in Lincoln, among whom there were four canons of Barlings, were tried 6 March, 1537, and ordered for immediate execution. Towards the end of March, Abbot Matthew Mackarel, one of his canons and some others were tried in London before Chancellor Oudeley, found guilty, and con- demned to be hanged and quartered. At the tirr.e of the dissolution the abbey and its possessions were granted to Charles, Duke of Suffolk. An arch and part of a wall are the only remains. The Right Rev. Martin Geudens, of Corpus Christi Priory, Manchester, was named Titular Abbot of Barlings. 7 May, 1898, and blessed 17 September, of the same year.

AnnaUs Prtrm.: Monasticon Anfilic.; Redm.w. Mss. Repister in Gasquet, Collertartea AngJo-Premonstratensia; Gasquet, Henry VIIl and the Enqhsh Mcinasleries i6th ed., London, 1895).

Martin Geudens. Barlow (alias Radcliffe and Brereton), Ed- ward Ambrose, Venerable, priest and martyr, b. at Barlow Hall, 1585; d. 10 September, 1641. _ He was the fourth son of Sir Alexander Barlow, Knight of Barlow Hall, near Manchester, by Mary, daughter of Sir Uryan Brereton, Knight of Handforth Hall, Co. Chester, and was baptized at Didsbury Church 30 No- vember, 1585; the entry in the register may still be seen. Educated at the Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory, Douai, he entered the English College, Valla- dolid. 20 September, 1610, but returned to Douai,

where his elder brother William Rudesind was a pro- fessed monk. He was himself professed in 1616 and ordained, 1617. Sent to England, he laboured in South Lancashire \\-ith apostolic zeal and fervour. He resided cliiefly at Wardley Hall, the seat of the Do-n-ue family, near Manchester, and at Morley's Hall, a mansion of the Tyldesleys, in the parish of Leigh, some seven miles from Manchester. At the former, his skull is still preserved, in a little recep- tacle on the staircase. At the latter he was appre- hended for the fifth and last time on Easter Sunday, 25 April, 1641. He was arrested by the Vicar of Eccles, who marched at the head of his parishioners, clad in his surplice, and was followed by some 400 men armed 'n-ith clubs and swords. He was preach- ing at the time and could have escaped in the confu- sion, but jnelded himself up to his enemies, and was carried off to Lancaster Castle. Here after four months' imprisonment he was tried, on 6 or 7 Septem- ber, and sentenced next day, ha\-ing confessed that he was a priest. On Friday, 10 September, he suffered the usual penalties at Lancaster.

A beautiful picture of his life is given by Challoner from two MS. relations belonging to St. Gregorj''s monastery, one written by his brother Dom Rudesind Barlow, President of the Anglo-Benedictine Congre- gation. There is another MS., entitled "The Apos- tolical life of Ambrose Barlow", written by one of his pupils for Dom Rudesind, which is at present in the Library of Owen's College, Manchester. It is to be printed among the publications of the Chetham Society. This contains many details hitherto un- published. Two portraits of this martjT exist and also one of liis father, Sir Alexander. Many of his relics are also preserved, a hand being at Stanbrook Abbey near Worcester. A full biography is in course of preparation.

Allan-son. Biographical MSS. (preserved at Ampleforth .\bbey). I; Gillow. Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath. (London, 1885); Challoner, Memoirs; Fletcher Moss, Pilgrimages to Old Homes (Didsbury, 1903); Idem, History of Didsbury (Man- chester); Idem. Chronicles of Cheadle, Cheshire (Didsbury, 1894); DoDD, Church History of England (Brussels, 1739). Bede C.\MM. Barlow, William Rudesind, third son of Sir Alex- ander Barlow of Barlow Hall, near Manchester, Eng- land, and Mary Brereton his wife, date of birth uncertain; d. at Douai, 19 Sept., 1656. The martjT, Ven. Edward Barlow, was his younger brother and was educated with him at the English College, Douai. Wishing to become a Benedictine, he joined the Spanish congregation, being professed at Cella Nueva in Gallicia in 1605. Ordained priest in 1608 he be- came Doctor of Divinity at Salamanca. In 1611 he went to St. Gregory's, Douai, where he was made prior in 1614, and, two years later, professor of theol- ogy at St. Vaast's College, an office which he held for forty years. Weldonsays; " He formed almost all the bishops, abbots, and professors that flourished in those parts for some time after. He was esteemed the first or chief of the scholastic divines or casuists of his time, and in knowledge of the canon law in- ferior to no one of his time or the age before." The circle of his friends included Bellarmine and other contemporary scholars.

He more than once refused the dignitj' of abbot and bishop, "and it was thought he would have re- fused that of cardinal, which was said to have been preparing for him." From 1621 to 1629 he was President-General of the English Congregation. In 1633 he became titular Cathedral-Prior of Canter- bury. Bej'ond a circular letter to the English Bene- dictines about their relations to the vicar Apostolic, none of his ^\Titings are left, although Gee, \\Titing in 1624, attributes to him a book called "The Ene- mies of God". Weldon adds that after his death a bishop offered the Benedictines of Douai an estab- lishment if they would give him Father Rudesind's