Acts of English Martyrs, Hitherto Unpublished. By John Hunger- ford
Pollen, S.J. With a Preface by John Morris, S.J. (Burns and Oates.)—The title of this painful but interesting volume may seem rather to beg the question, but it is not easy to refuse the title of Martyrs to many of those whose sufferings are here described. The Marian persecution has left an indelible impression on English history and feeling, while the counter-persecution of her successor has been forgotten or ignored, but in many respects there is not much to choose between them. The practice under Elizabeth of racking and torturing suspects in order to extract from them declarations of political heresy, to be used in framing or supporting indictments of high treason, recalls one of the
worst features of the Spanish Inquisition. The first instance of this is found in the case of Thomas Sherwood, a layman, in 1577. 'The warrants of the Privy Council, here printed, order him to be examined by the Attorney-General, and if he refuse to confess willingly, then he is to be committed to the dungeon among the rats, and to be assayed at the rack. In the Ceram Rege and Controlment Rolls, we find the record of his indictment and conviction for high treason, the only facts laid against him being that, in answer to his inquisitors, he had described the Queen as a schismatic and heretic, and had maintained the deposing power of the Pope. Official documents such as these, and the Queen's Proclamation giving her reasons for the execution of William Marsden and Robert Anderton, two seminary priests, in 1586, are of considerable historical interest. The records from Catholic sources now published for the first time contain moving and pathetic stories, but they do not differ substantially from others that have been already published.
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