The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-01-03
LONDON TOWERS
GRUESO NE STORY
THE PRlsoN-HoUsE OF MANY
NOTABLE PERSoNAGES WHO
SUFFERED FOR THE FAITH IN
ENGLAND ESPECIALLY IN THE
REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

nGIGN VI &OEEN ELIZABE III
1t was principally in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth that the Tower of
London became the prison of those
who protested the Catholic Faith and
refused to subscribe to the so-called
reformed principles of religion. Many
Catholics had been incarcerated in it's
dungeons in the time of Henry VIII,
but their numbers where few when
compared with those who forfeited
their lives within its sinister precincts
in the days of his daughter, Eliza
beth. When Mary of Scotland was
executed in 155S-her death took
place at Fotheringhay in Northamp-
tonshire-the event seemed to provide
a signal for the filling of the prisons
of the Tower, for eight Catholic
priests were known to me immured
there in 1861, while the number of
Catholic priests who were allowed to
die of disease or were secretly muir
dered will never now be known, since
all Catholic churchmen were then at
the mercy of common informers,"
and summary Imprisonment was in
variably their portion. It is, how
ever, certain that, during the persecu-
ton ages, over three hundred priests
and laymen and religious women lost
their lives within the walls Of the
Tower. Certainly nothing in the bar
barous history of the worst of the
Middle Age tyrants can exceed, for re-
finement of cruelty and torture, the
story of the Tower.
The Torture Chamber.
The history of the White Tower is
gruesomeness itself Here was the tor
ture-chamber, and the holes in which
the four posts of the rack we're sunk
are still to be seen. On this instru-
ment Fathers Campion and Briant
were (according to the boast of the
rack-master Norton) stretched
foot longer than Nature had intended
them to be" while Father Gerard had
his hands screwed into two iron rings
by which he was suspended to a col
umn, so that his feet just touched the
ground Thrice he was subjected for
hours at stretch to this torture and
that of the thumb-screws He was
one of the few priests who ever
escaped from the place, two lay
brothers, dressed as watermen,
rescuing him at night through his cell
window and rowing him down to
Gravesend, whence he escaped.
Within the White Tower was dun
geon which was known as Little
Ease" and was so built that the
prisoner could neither stand upright,
nor lie down at full length. A pipe
connected this cell with the moat and
admitted the water from the Thames
at high tide, to the height of several
feet, so that in addition to the torture
of his plight, the unhappy captive
was nearly drowned and even bitten
by hungry river rats that swan in
with the foul and Shiny water. Here,
too, in earlier ages, Jews were, first
subjected to the total darkness tor
ture in order to force them to part
with treasure, and it is recorded that,
In the year 1880, there were one thou
sand prisoners who were kept there in
durance and daily gave their gaolers
practice in torturing; most of these
prisoners were Jesuits, and so revolt
ing were the tortures that a govern
ment inquiry was instituted to in
vestigate the horrors practised. So
fearful were the tortures inflicted on
Father Southwell, that his father sent
a petition to Elizabeth praying that
his son might be either executed or
treated as a gentleman" Even Eliza
beth relented.
Some of the Victims.
Among the most illustrious prison
ers was Philip Howard, Earl of Arun-
del, whose father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather were also executed
in the Tower. Howard died in his
prison in 1895, and permission was re-
fused him to see his wife or the SON
born to him when he had been but a
few months in prison. He refused the