(From Challoner’s Memoirs,[3] 3.168) JOHN CORNELIUS was born at Bodmin,[4] in Cornwall of Irish parents, & brought up at school in the same town; from whence he was sent to Oxford by Sir John Arundel, who was much taken with his rare genius and diligence in learning. But Mr. Cornelius, liking the old religion better than the new, left Oxford and went beyond the seas to Rheims (the English college having been lately translated thither from Douay), & was there received by Dr. Allen,[5] the institutor and first president of that seminary of martyrs. After some stay here he was sent in 1580 to Rome, to finish his studies in the English college of that city, where he remained for some years. Here he was made priest, and from there was sent upon the English mission, where he laboured with great fruit for about ten years. He was a man of most mortified life and greatly addicted to prayer and contemplation, but, withal, zealous and diligent in his pastoral functions, & had a notable talent in preaching, so that he was admired and loved by all who knew him. He was apprehended in the house[6] of the widow of Sir John Arundel, upon the information of a wicked servant, on the second Sunday after Easter, in April, 1594, by Mr Trenchard,[7] Sheriff of Dorsetshire, & with him Mr Thomas Bosgrave, a Cornish gentleman, a kinsman of Sir John Arundel, who was also hurried away to prison, because, seeing Mr. Cornelius in the hands of officers, hurried away without any hat, he clapped his own hat upon the confessor’s head, saying: ‘The honour I owe to your function may not suffer me to see you go bareheaded.’ Upon which the Sheriff told him he should bear him company, and, as we shall see by and by, for this offence he afterwards also suffered with him. John, or as others call him Terence, Carey, and Patrick Salmon,[8] both natives of Dublin, and servants in the family were also committed to prison on this occasion, as aiding and assisting Mr. Cornelius. The confessor was first carried to the Sheriff’s house, where some Protestant ministers strongly attacked him on the subject of religion; but Mr Cornelius maintained the Catholic cause with such strong arguments that the Sheriff, fearing the influence his words would make upon those that were present, put a stop to the dispute. Shortly after, the Council being informed of all that had passed, the confessor was ordered to be sent up to London ; where he was examined by the Lord Treasurer,[9] the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,[10] and others of the Privy Council, who strove to extort out of him, first by words, and afterwards by the rack, the names of such Catholics as had harboured or relieved him ; but his constancy was proof against all their efforts, and he refused to the last to make any discovery, which might redound to the prejudice of his benefactors.[11] Upon this he was sent back into the country, there to take his trial, and there to die. The three last days before the assizes he spent wholly in prayer and in pious exhortations to his fellow prisoners, without eating, in a manner, or sleeping, and so prepared himself for his conflict. After this he was brought to the bar with his three companions, where they were all found guilty by the jury; Mr. Cornelius of high treason, for being a priest, and coming into this kingdom, and remaining here; Mr. Bosgrave and the other two, of felony, for aiding and assisting Mr. Cornelius, knowing him to be a priest. After the jury had brought in their verdict, the three laymen cast themselves at the feet of Mr. Cornelius to crave his blessing; and they were all sent back to prison, sentence not being to be pronounced till the next day. They prepared themselves for it by prayer, and animated one another by pious colloquies, in which they passed that night; and on the following day they were all sentenced to die. It was observed that Judge Walmsley pronounced the sentence with tears in his eyes. Mr Cornelius would have spoken to the judges after sentence was given, but was ordered to be silent. However, the judges assured them all that their lives would be saved if they would conform and go to the Protestant church ; which they all stoutly refusing, were sent back to prison, there to prepared for their last end. They were condemned on the 2nd of July, 1594, and on the 4th were carried out to their martyrdom.[12] Mr Cornelius was drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution; the other three walked on foot. The confessor animated them by the way to suffer death with courage and constancy; and, indeed, it appeared by their countenances that they went to the gallows with as much content and satisfaction as if they had been going to a feast. Mr Cornelius made also the best use he could of his time in favour of a malefactor, who was to suffer with them whom he so effectually exhorted to faith and repentance, that the man declared aloud he looked upon himself as happy that he was to die in such good company. The first that was ordered up the ladder was John Carey, a man of great courage. He kissed the rope when it was put about his neck, saying, ‘0 precious collar’; then he made a profession of his faith, for which he declared he died ; and so was turned off. The next was Patrick Salmon, a man much admired and beloved for his virtues. In dying he admonished the people, that the only way to secure their eternal welfare was to embrace that faith for which he and his companions laid down their lives. Mr Bosgrave was called upon next, who being a man of reading, made a speech to the people of the certainty of the Catholic faith; which was heard with great attention, the ministers standing by and not offering a word in vindication of their religion. And now it was come to Mr. Cornelius’ turn to ascend the ladder; at the foot of which he knelt down, and prayed a little while; then kissed the ground, and afterwards the feet of his companions, who were still hanging; then addressing himself to the gallows, he saluted it with these words of St. Andrew ‘O bona crux, diu desiderata,’ &c. O good Cross, a long time desire, &c. And going up the ladder, he offered thrice several times to speak to the people and was as often interrupted. Then he declared what had hitherto been kept a secret, viz., that he was admitted into the Society of Jesus in London by the Superior of the English Jesuits; and was to have gone over with others to make his noviciate in Flanders,[13] had he not been prevented by his apprehension. After which he prayed aloud for his persecutors, for the conversion of the Queen, and so was flung off the ladder, and shortly after cut down and quartered. His quarters were set up on four poles, but afterwards were taken down by the Catholics, and buried with the bodies of his companions. His head was nailed to the gallows, till it was removed at the desire of the town, apprehending the scourges of God upon them, as they had experienced before on the like occasion. Yet we are told that the following year a dreadful plague ensued among them, which carried off so many that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead. Mr. Cornelius and his companions suffered at Dorchester, July 4th, 1594. Bruodin gives July 3 as the date. See also Alegambe and Bruodin. [1] He is called McMahon, and Mahony by various writers. [2] These are among the two hundred and sixty-one Venerable Servants of God put to death in England for the faith whose cause was allowed to be introduced in the S. Congregation of Rites by the decree of December, 1886. [3] From a MS, in Dr.C.’s possession, and from an account sent from England three months after Mr C’s death (Challoner’s note) [4] ‘The ship on which his parents were flying from the persecution of the English was driven by a storm into a Cornish port. Fitsimon says he always spoke of himself as an Irishman. See Bruodin’s Propugnaâulum, p. 458, and Hogan’s Ibemia Ignat., p.33 [5] Founder of the English Colleges of Douay, Rheims, and Rome. He was made a Cardinal in 1587. He died in 1594. [6] Chidiock Castle, says Oliver. Collections illustrating the History of the Catholic Church in Devon, p. 37 [7] Bruodin gives John Morton as his name. Propug., p.46O [8] Bruodin gives the names as Patrick O’Hogan, and John McConsidine, and says they were natives of Thomond. Ibid., p.461. [9] William Cecil, Lord Burghley. [10] John Whitgift was Archbishop from 1583 to 1604 [11] Bruodin says it was then he was received into the Society of Jesus. Propug., p.461 [12] At Dorchester [13] Foley, Records of the English Province S.J., iv. 141, vii.169, has some further details about him. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
