- Richard Fetherston
Richard Fetherston (Fetherstone, Featherstone) (executed at Smithfield,
30 July 1540 ) was an EnglishRoman Catholic priest. He was chaplain toCatharine of Aragon and tutor to her daughter,Mary Tudor . He wasbeatified byPope Leo XIII , 29 December, 1886.Life
He is called "sacrae theologiae Doctor" by Pits (De illustribus Angliae scriptoribus, 729). He was one of the theologians appointed to defend Queen Catharine's cause in the divorce proceedings before the
papal legate sCardinal Wolsey andCardinal Campeggio , and is said to have written a treatise "Contra divortium Henrici et Catharinae, Liber unus". No copy of this work is known to exist.He took part in the session of
Convocation which began in April, 1529, and was one of the few members who refused to sign the Act declaringHenry VIII 's marriage with Catharine to be illegal "ab initio", through the pope's inability to grant a dispensation in such a case. In 1534 he was called upon to take theOath of Supremacy and, on refusing to do so, was committed to theTower of London , 13 December, 1534. He seems to have remained in prison till 30 July, 1540.He was
hanged, drawn, and quartered at Smithfield, together with the Catholic theologians,Thomas Abel andEdward Powell , like himself councillors to Queen Catharine in the divorce proceedings, and three others, Barnes, Garret, and Jerome, condemned for teachingZwinglianism . All six were drawn through the streets upon three hurdles, a Catholic and a heretic on each hurdle. The Protestants were burned, and the three Catholics executed in the usual manner, their limbs being fixed over the gates of the city and their heads being placed upon poles on London Bridge.References
*PITS, De illustribus Angliae scriptoribus (Paris, 1619), 729;
*SANDER, tr. LEWIS, Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism (London, 1877), 65, 67, 150;
*BURNET, History of the Reformation, ed. POCOCK (Oxford, 1865), I, 260, 472, 566-67; IV, 555, 563;
*TANNER, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (London, 1748), 278;
*Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation (Parker Society, Cambridge, 1846), I, 209;
*Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII, ed. GAIRDNER (London, 1882, 1883, 1885, VI, 311, 1199; VII, 530; VIII, 666, 1001.
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