St. John Houghton and the Martyrs of the English Reformation

For 150 years during the 16th and 17th centuries, England was at war with Catholicism and the pope. Hundreds of men and women, Catholic and Protestant, were killed during this dispute. Today, the Catholic Church remembers about 300 martyrs who were killed for their faith in England and Wales between 1534 and 1681.

A brief history: Mary I, queen of England and Ireland from 1553-1558, restored Catholicism and papal authority to England. She was known as “Bloody Mary” for having some 300 Protestants burned at the stake for heresy against the Catholic faith.

Mary’s sister and successor, Elizabeth I, reversed this Catholic restoration and denied papal authority in England. In 1570, the pope excommunicated Elizabeth and called Catholics in England to rebel. Fearing invasion by a Catholic nation assisted by English Catholics, Elizabeth repressed Catholicism harshly. To be Catholic was to be a traitor, and it was forbidden by law to attend Catholic Mass.

Catholics in England and Wales were arrested and imprisoned, and many were executed by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Some 300 Catholic men and women are honored today in separate lists for having died for their faith. They include bishops, priests, religious, and lay men and women.

Saint John Houghton, a Carthusian monk, was hanged, drawn and quartered on May 4, along with four companions. St. John is considered the first to be martyred and condemned for the simple crime of being Catholic.