The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-03-19
TOWER OF LONDON REVEALS
RECORDS OF ENGLISH
MARTYRS.
CBv N. C. w. C. News SerTice,)

In the Whole OF London, perhaps IN
the whole oil England, there is no
place that is so saturated With a pro
found feeling of tragedy and OF pity
as the Beauchamp Tower in the
Tower of London. a heavy and forbid
ding pile in which were imprisoned
some illustriOuS confeSsors for the
Faith in England.
You pass from the massive central
keep of the Tower of London that
was built by the Conquero, and
across Tower Green, where there is
still marked out the actual spot where
some of the English Martyrs laid
down their lives; past the church OF
St. Peter I'D yincula in the Tower,
where lies buried the martyred and
Blessed Margaret Pole, Countess of
Salisbury, and then descending some
few steps. pass under Il low arched
doorway that leads up into the Beau
champ Tower
Immediately inside the archway Of
the door there is small stone lobby,
in which appears the first note OF
tragedy and martyrdom. For on its
wall is inscribed in the stone the sa-
cred monogram II. II. s.. carved
there by some valiant witness for the
Catholic Faith, when to be Catholic
was to be also a felon and an outlaw.
4 narrow winding staircase cut in
the thickness OF the Tower leads to
an upper chamber, dimly lighted by
the narrow Sits that pierce the thick
Tru,, IN
this darkened chamber, where so
many Of The sufferers were immured,
there are to be found on the walls d
number OF inscriptions and devices,
carved by those prisoners who were
detained here until barbarous death
brought an end to their affections.
Inscription of Martyred Monk.
Among the many names, devices,
and Inscriptions with which the walls
of this upper dungeon are almost COW
cred, there is one that has a signifi-
canoe of its own, since it tells its own
story of the ferOciOus brutality of
Henry VIII, and his ruthlessness in
stamping out every kind of OPP
position to his evil determination.
This inscription consists of the words
"Adam: Sadbar: Abbas: Joreval."
Adam Sedbar was Abbot of the Cis-
tercian Abbey of JervaulX in York
shire, one of the most famous of the
Cistercian houses in England, the
ruins of which. are still to be seen.
He was seized, after diabolical act
of treachery on the part of the King S
representative, for having taken part
in the Yorkshire Rising, movement
on the part of the people of Yorkshire
10 bring back the Pope and the Cath
Ollie Religion to England. The rec
ords of the trial, which may be found
in the collection of state papers and
documents. show that Abbot Sedbar
had very little to- do with this move
ment: indeed, the evidence shows
that when the insurgents reached his
abbey and called upon him to lend his
aid to the rising, he escaped by a
back door and hid in the moors.
He was simple man, as the rec.
ords of the trial show, and not even
the evidence of suborned periurers
could prove that he had ever been in
rebellion against the King; indeed
the whole of the evidence goes te
show that Abbot Sedbar was not OF
the stuff of which cOnspirators are
made. But by the treachery of the
Duke of Norfolk he was seized ant
eventually thrown into the Tower.
Ii is evident that the authorities
hoped so to act upon the simplicity o.
Abbot Sedbar as to secure other vic
tins; to trip him in his talk, and 81
complicate others. One day Thoma:
Cromwell entered the cell in the Tow
er where the Abbot was confined, ant
promised him that if he would name
those who were complicated in The
Northern Rising he would have hi!
own life spared The Abbot woult
say nothing that could implicate 9th
ers, and Cromwell, with the meal
craftiness that raised him in life ant
ultimately brought him to the blocl
on Tower Hill, gently laid on stoo
in the Abbot's prison cell paper ant
a pen. But the Abbot refused to b,
caught in this way, and Cromwell wa
disappointed.
Dragged to Tyburn.
Finding the Abbot unmovable in hi
determination, the court decreed hi
death, and he was left in prison unit
on one fateful day, shortly after tn
feast of Pentecost, he was dragged o.
q hurdle at the hoofs of a horse
through the streets of the city of Tl
burn, where he met his death for tn
cause of Catholic unity.
The prisoners who were confined i
the Beauchamp Tower, and who lei
their names inscribed upon it's wall:
were many of them of families illus
trious in the history of England. Blu
among them all there is none who's
device strikes a Catholic visitor t
this dungeon with a greater feelln
of pathos, than that of the simpl
Yorkshire monk who before passin
to his sharp martyrdom left on tn
imperishable stone the few simpl
words that tell after generation
there languished in that prison, TO
the cause of the Catholic faith, Adar
Sedhar, Abbot of JervaulX.
FRENCH GENERALS PUT FAITl