Christopher Bales
Biography
Christopher was born at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564. He entered the English College at Rome on 1 October 1583,{{Cite web |url=http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk/vec_02.html |title="Martyrs' Picture", Archdiocese of Southwark |access-date=13 October 2021 |archive-date=15 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715004954/http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk/vec_02.html |url-status=dead }} but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims. Bales suffered from consumption.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07471a.htm Brown, C.F. Wemyss. "Nicholas Horner." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 16 April 2020{{PD-notice}}
He was ordained on 28 March 1587 at Reims. Sent to England on 2 November 1588,[https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-christopher-bales/ Thompson Cooper. "Christopher Bales". Dictionary of National Biography. CatholicSaints.Info. 9 June 2013] he was soon arrested, racked and tortured by Topcliffe, and hung up by the hands for twenty-four hours at a time and "bore all most patiently".[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02222a.htm Camm, Bede. "Ven. Christopher Bales." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 16 April 2020, {{PD-notice}}
Bales was tried and condemned for high treason on the charge of having been ordained beyond seas and coming to England to exercise his office. He asked Judge Anderson whether Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English (who did the same), was also a traitor; the judge said no, but that the act had since been made treason by law.
He was executed on 4 March 1590, "about Easter", in Fleet Street (London),[https://books.google.com/books?id=yzqOCgAAQBAJ&dq=Bl.+Christopher+Bales&pg=PA142 Watkins, Basil. The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, p. 142] {{ISBN|9780567664150}} opposite Fetter Lane. On the gibbet was set a placard: "For treason and favouring foreign invasion". He spoke to the people from the ladder, saying that his only "treason" was his priesthood. On the same day, Nicholas Horner was executed in Smithfield for having made Bales a jerkin, and Alexander Blake for lodging him in his house.
Alexander Blake
Alexander Blake was an ostler convicted of aiding Bale and was hanged outside his own door at Gray's Inn Lane.[https://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/a-martyred-priest-and-his-lay-companions Mann, Stephanie. "A Martyred Priest and His Lay Companions", National Catholic Register, March 4, 2017]
See also
References
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Sources
- {{CathEncy|wstitle=Ven. Christopher Bales}}
- John Gibbons, Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae in Anglia (Trier, 1589). (Formerly attributed to John Bridgewater).
- Richard Challoner, Memoirs
- John Hungerford Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891)
- Northern Catholic Calendar
- Thomas Francis Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878)
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Category:English beatified people
Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
Category:16th-century venerated Christians