Cuthbert Mayne

Mayne was born at Youlston, near Barnstaple, Devon, the son of William Mayne. He was baptised at the Church of St Peter, Shirwell on 20 March 1543/4, the feast day of St Cuthbert. An uncle who was a Church of England priest paid for him to attend Barnstaple Grammar School. Mayne was instituted rector of the parish of Huntshaw in December 1561. He attended Oxford University, first at St Alban Hall, then at St John's College, and was awarded a B.A. on 6 April 1566 and M.A. on 8 April 1570. On 27 April 1570, the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I and those who obeyed her laws and commands, releasing her subjects from their allegiance to her. == Catholic conversion ==

At Oxford, Mayne met Edmund Campion and other Catholics, such as Gregory Martin, Humphrey Ely, Henry Shaw, Thomas Bramston, Henry Holland, Jonas Meredith, and Roland Russell. At some point, Mayne, too, became a Catholic. Late in 1570, a letter addressed to him from Gregory Martin, urging him to come to Douai, fell into the hands of the Bishop of London, and he sent a pursuivant to arrest Mayne and others mentioned in the letter. Warned by Thomas Ford, Mayne evaded arrest by going to Cornwall and then, in 1573, to the English College, Douai, now in northern France. == Imprisonment and trial ==

While awaiting trial at the circuit assizes in September, Mayne was imprisoned in Launceston Castle. At the opening of the trial on 23 September 1577 there were five counts against him: and delivered it to Francis Tregian; fifth, that he had celebrated Mass. Mayne answered all counts. On the first and second counts, he said that the supposed "faculty" was merely a copy printed at Douai of an announcement of the Jubilee of 1575, and that its application having expired with the end of the jubilee, he certainly had not published it either at Golden (the manor house of Francis Tregian) or elsewhere. On the third count, he said that he had asserted nothing definite on the subject to the three illiterate witnesses who swore to the contrary. On the fourth count, he said that the fact he was wearing an Agnus Dei at the time of his arrest did not establish that he had brought it into the kingdom or delivered it to Tregian. On the fifth count, he said that the presence of a Missal, a chalice, and vestments in his room did not establish that he had said Mass. The trial judge, Justice Sir Roger Manwood, directed the jury to return a verdict of guilty, stating that, "where plain proofs were wanting, strong presumptions ought to take place". Manwood also argued that it was illegal to introduce any papal letter into the country, no matter what it was. The jury found Mayne guilty of high treason on all counts, and accordingly, he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Mayne responded, "Deo gratias". Tregian was sentenced to die but was in fact incarcerated for 28 years until, on the petition of his friends, he was released by King James I. His execution was delayed because one of the judges, Jeffries, took exception to the proceedings and sent a report to the Privy Council. The Council submitted the case to the whole bench of judges, which was inclined to Jeffries's view. Nevertheless, the council ordered the execution to proceed. Mayne had also supposedly stated that "the people of England may be won unto the catholic religion of the see of Rome by such secret instructions as either are or may be within the realm; but what these secret instructions are he will not utter, but hopeth when time serveth they shall do therein as pleaseth God". == Execution ==

A gallows was erected in the marketplace at Launceston, and Mayne was executed there on 29 November 1577. Before being brought to the place of execution, Mayne was offered his life in return for a renunciation of his religion and an acknowledgement of the supremacy of the queen as head of the church. Declining both offers, he kissed a copy of the Bible, declaring that, "the queen neither ever was, nor is, nor ever shall be, the head of the church of England". He was not allowed to speak to the crowd but only to say his prayers quietly. It is unclear if he died on the gallows but all agree that he was unconscious, or almost so, when he was drawn and quartered. One source states that he was cut down alive, but in falling struck his head against the scaffold. ==Political considerations==

A. L. Rowse sees the condemnation of Mayne as arising from local rivalries between Protestant coastal and Catholic inland interests. Grenville had been unsuccessful in his attempts to arrange a marriage between his daughter and the Tregian heir. The coming of Mayne and others made the English government fear the possibility of papal agents coming to the island to ready the populace to rise up in revolt in support of King Philip II of Spain in an invasion of England. This helped support the case to pass harsher legislation against Catholicism in England. Establishing a threat from subversive Catholic elements also served Elizabeth's counsellors such as Lord Burghley in their attempts to persuade the Queen to support the Dutch Revolt against Spain. == Legacy ==

Mayne was beatified "equipollently" by Pope Leo XIII, by means of a decree of 29 December 1886 and was canonised along with other martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970. Mayne was the first seminary priest, the group of priests who were trained not in England but in houses of studies on the Continent. He was also one of the group of prominent Catholic martyrs of the persecution who were later designated as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Relics of Mayne's body survive. A portion of his skull is kept at Lanherne Convent in Cornwall. Christopher M. B. Allison suggests that the silver reliquary discovered in 2015 at Jamestown, Virginia in the grave of Captain Gabriel Archer (died 1609/10) may contain a relic of Mayne. There are many memorials to him in Launceston, and in 1977 the name of the Roman Catholic church on St Stephen's Hill there was changed from the Church of the English Martyrs to the Church of St Cuthbert Mayne; it is the site of the National Shrine to St Cuthbert Mayne. In 1921 an annual June pilgrimage was initiated in Launceston to commemorate Mayne. St Cuthbert Mayne School, a voluntary aided Roman Catholic and Church of England school in Torquay, and St Cuthbert Mayne Catholic Junior School in Hemel Hempstead, are named after him. The St Cuthbert Mayne RC High School in Fulwood, Lancashire merged in 1988 to become Our Lady's Catholic High School. == In art ==

Daniel Fournier engraved a mezzotint of Mayne. Ushaw College has paintings of him. Stained-glass windows represent him in the following churches/schools: • The Chapel of St Cuthbert in Ushaw College. • Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea in Falmouth, Cornwall • St Saviour's Church in Lewisham • Church of St Mary of the Angels in Bayswater, London • St Edmund's College, Ware • Our Lady of Lourdes, Harpenden, Hertfordshire ==In fiction==

In the historical novel The Grove of Eagles by Winston Graham, which is set in Cornwall some years after Mayne's death, there are several references to him. One character, a Catholic member of the prominent Arundell family of Tolverne, says that his Protestant brother, who was one of the jurors at Mayne's trial, will burn in Hell for his share in Mayne's death. The brother, filled with guilt for his share in the execution, has not only converted to the Roman Catholic faith but is risking his life by sheltering other priests. ==References==