Thomas Abel, Blessed (also
Able, or Abell), priest and martyr, born about 1497; died 30 July,
1540. He was chaplain to Queen Catharine, and defender of the
validity of her marriage with Henry VIII, for which reason he was
eventually put to death. He was a graduate of Oxford, and appears
to have taught the queen modern languages and music. After a
journey to Spain in her behalf, he received the parochial benefice
of Bradwell in Sussex. He soon published (May, 1532?) in defence
of the queen's marriage a work entitled: "Invicta Veritas, an
answer to the determination of the most famous Universities, that
by no manner of law it may be lawful for King Henry to be divorced
from the Queen's grace, his lawful and very wife". For this
he was thrown (1532) into Beauchamp Tower, and after a year's
liberation again imprisoned, in December, 1533, on the charges of
disseminating the prophecies of the Maid of Kent, encouraging the
queen "obstinately to persist in her wilful opinion against
the same divorce and separation", and maintaining her right
to the title of queen. He was kept in close confinement until his
execution at Tyburn, two days after the execution of Cromwell
himself. There is extant a very pious Latin letter written by him
to a fellow-martyr, and another to Cromwell, begging for some
slight mitigation of his "close prison" -- i.e. "license
to go to church and say Mass here within the Tower and for to lie
in some house upon the Green". It is signed "by your
daily bedeman, Thomas Abell, priest". His act of attainder
states that he and three others "have most traitorously
adhered themselves unto the bishop of Rome, being a common enemy
unto your Majesty and this your Realm, refusing your Highness to
be our and their Supreme Head of this your Realm of England".
There is in Beauchamp Tower a rebus of the Martyr, probably
executed by himself; the figure of a bell carved on the wall, the
letter A in front and the word "Thomas" above. He is one
of the fifty-four English martyrs beatified by Leo XIII 29 Dec.,
1886.
POLLEN,
Lives of the English Martyrs, I (London, 1904), 462-83.
Thomas J. Shahan.
Blessed
Edward
Powell.—With Blessed Thomas Abel there
suffered Edward Powell, priest and martyr, b. in Wales about 1478;
M.A. Oxon.; Fellow of Oriel, 1495; D.D. 26 June, 1506 and styled
perdoctus vir
by the university. He was rector of Bleadon, Somerset, and
prebendary of Centum Solidorum in Lincoln, which he exchanged for
Carlton-cum-Thurlby in 1505, and the latter for Sutton-in-Marisco
in 1525. He also held the prebends of Lyme Regis, Calstock,
Bedminster, and St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and the living of St.
Edmond's Salisbury. A court preacher in high favour with Henry
VIII, he was ordered to publish a reply to Luther ("Propugnaculum
summi Sacerdotii Evangelici, ac septem Sacramentorum, aeditum per
virum eruditum, sacrarum literarum professorem Edoardum Poelum
adversus Maratinum Lutherum fratrem famosum et Wiclifistan
insignem", London, 1523, three books in the form of a
dialogue between Powell and Luther). The University of Oxford
commended this work, and styled Powell "the glory of the
university" in a letter to the king. Powell was one of the
four theologians selected to defend the legality of the marriage
of Catherine of Aragon, in connection with which he wrote the very
rare "Tractatus de non dissolvendo Henrici Regis cum
Catherina matrimonio" (London).
In March, 1533, Powell was selected
to answer Latimer at Bristol, and was alleged to have disparaged
his moral character. Latimer complained to Cromwell, and Powell
fell into further disfavour by denouncing Henry's marriage with
Anne Boleyn. He was discharged from the proctorship of Salisbury
in Jan., 1534, and in November he was attainted, together with
Blessed John Fisher, for high treason in refusing to take the oath
of succession, deprived of his benefices, and imprisoned in the
Tower of London. His confinement was very rigorous; the keeper
himself was sent to the Marshalsea Prison for allowing Powell and
Abel out on bail. The sentence was not carried out until 30 July,
1540. Three Catholics (Powell, Abel, and Richard Featherstone) and
three Protestants suffered together. The victims were dragged on
hurdles from the Tower to Smithfield, a Catholic and a Protestant
on each hurdle. Powell's companion was Robert Barnes, the
Protestant divine. A dialogue in verse was published shortly
after, "The Metynge of Doctor Barnes and Dr. Powell at
Paradise Gate and of theyre communicacion bothe drawen to
Smithfylde fro the Towar" (London, 1540), in the British
Museum. The Catholics were hanged, drawn, and quartered as
traitors; the others were burned as heretics.
CHURTON, Lives of the
Founders of Braenose, 118, 181, 245, 363.
C. F. Wemyss Brown.
