John Story (martyr)

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John Storey (* 1504 in Salisbury , † June 1, 1571 in Tyburn ) was an English politician and Roman Catholic martyr. As a legal scholar, Story acquired such a good reputation that from 1535 he was appointed the first Regius Professor of Civil Law before his doctoral thesis . In 1538 he was relieved of the obligation to attend lectures because he was already giving the general lecture on Civil Law . In his place Robert Weston gave the lectures of the Regius Professor. Story's appointment was for life as a reward for the good service he did to Henry VIII in the siege of Boulogne . In 1546 the university found it necessary to have Weston confirmed as deputy by the king. Even after Story was elected as a parliamentarian to the House of Commons , he retained the title of professor, but was represented by Weston. When he at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI. went into exile, he also lost his professorship. After his return from exile on October 7, 1553, he was called again. After his re-election to parliament, William Aubrey replaced him .

Life

John was born to Joan and Nicholas Story of Salisbury and educated at Hinxsey Hall or Henxly Hall, University of Oxford , where he was also appointed Lecturer in Civil Law in 1535 . From 1537 to 1539 he became director of Broadgates Hall , which was renamed Pembroke College in the 17th century . Story was a member of Doctors' Commons from 1539 .

Shortly after the enthronement of King Edward VI. Story seems to have briefly renounced his Roman Catholic faith. But after Story had been elected to Parliament in 1545 for the constituency of Salisbury and 1547 for the constituency of Hindon in Wiltshire , he became famous for his opposition to the Uniformity Act of 1549, in which the Church of England was to be designated as the state church. For his exclamation Woe unto thee, O land, when thy king is a child , Story was imprisoned by the House of Commons , but released shortly afterwards (January 24th to March 2, 1549) and went into exile in Leuven .

In August 1553 he returned to England, where he focused his attention on his position as Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford . He became Chancellor of Bishop Edmund Bonner of the Dioceses of London and Oxford, and Dean of Arches . Under the reigning Catholic Queen Mary I of England, Story was one of the most active persecutors of heretics , i.e. Protestants, and one of the accusers at the trial of Thomas Cranmer in Oxford in 1555.

Since Mary was childless when she died, her sister Elizabeth I of England took over the reign and again accepted the Protestant faith. Story was again MP in 1553 for East Grinstead , April 1554 for Bramber , November 1554 for Bath , 1555 for Ludgershall (Wiltshire) and 1559 for Downton (also Wiltshire). As a parliamentarian, he woke up his opposition to the Act of Supremacy of 1558 ( Act of Supremacy in 1558 ) the displeasure of the Queen. On May 20, 1560 he was briefly imprisoned again for boasting of his work for Queen Maria. In 1563 he was arrested again and transferred to the infamous Marshalsea Prison. But he managed to escape to Flanders , where he gave up his citizenship, became a Spanish citizen and lived on a pension from King Philip II of Spain . The Duke of Alba , who ruled in the Netherlands , employed him in the customs authorities of the Netherlands and he examined incoming ships for heretical literature. While he was still working on it, he was lured onto a ship in the port of Antwerp by a trick in 1570 and kidnapped to Great Yarmouth .

Despite his assertion that he was a Spanish citizen, he was charged with high treason . As a reason, the prosecutors cited his support of the insurgent Peers in 1569 in northern England ( Rising of the North ), who had tried to lure the Duke of Alba to invade England. On May 2, 1571 he was sentenced to death . The spectacle of the trial influenced Edmund Campion who was present to reassess his position and his later conversion to Catholicism . Story was born on June 1, 1571 on the place of execution of London in Tyburn by hanged, drawn and quartered executed.

In 1886 John Story was given by Pope Leo XIII. based on a papal bull of Gregory XVI. Beatified by 1859.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g TH Aston, The History of the University of Oxford, James McConica (ed.) 1986, Clarendon Press, Oxford; Page 262–267
  2. a b c d e f Roger Virgoe and RJW Swales History of Parliament, STORY, John (c.1504-71) ; accessed on May 14, 2014.
  3. a b c d e Stermont-Synge on www.British-History.ac.uk; Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  4. ^ Henry Frowde; Historical Register of the University of Oxford ; Oxford University Press Warehouse; Amen Corner, EG; Clarendon Press; being a supplement to the Oxford University Calendar, with an alphabetical record of University honors and distinctions, completed to the end of trinity term, 1888; Retrieved July 10, 2014.
  5. a b c d e f g John Wainewright Bl. John Story . The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910; accessed on May 14, 2014
  6. a b c d e f John Story in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911; Volume 26.
  7. ^ John Story ( Memento July 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) online at www.saints.sqpn.com, accessed May 14, 2014.