Between 1534 and 1680 numerous laws were made in England against Roman Catholics, at first forbidding them to deny the validity of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn but eventually outlawing priests and ‘Popery’ completely. Hundreds of individuals were put to death under these laws: many priests, some monks and a considerable number of lay people.
The most famous of these are Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, but many of the others were highly educated and distinguished churchmen. Some, like More and Fisher, were beheaded at the Tower, and others died in regional towns. But the majority suffered at Tyburn, often by being hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors. Roman Catholics in England have always considered as martyrs those who were executed during this ‘Penal Period’ in church history. However, it has only been since 1850, when the Roman Catholic hierarchy was re-established in England, that official investigation has taken place.
The result of this extremely careful and complicated process has been the public recognition of a number of persons whose lives and deaths have shown them to be genuine martyrs of the church. Of these, 43 have been canonized (that is, recognized universally as saints), including More and Fisher, and 242 have been beatified (recognized papal decree as worthy of regional veneration and referred to as ‘blessed’—such as the Blessed John Haile). Others are under active investigation, and there is a final group, the ‘Dilati’, for whom there is insufficient evidence.