John Forest

John Forest (1471 – 22 May 1538) was an English martyr and friar. [1]

Born in the Oxford area, John Forest became a Franciscan Friar Minor of the Regular Observance in 1491. He went on to study theology at the University of Oxford, later becoming confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon, first wife to King Henry VIII. From 1531 the Friars Minor had gained the violent enmity of Henry by opposing his divorce and his movements toward protestantism.

On 8 April 1538, Forest was brought before Henry's Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, to renounce his rejection of King Henry's assumed title of head of the Church of England. Refusing to accept the King as head of the church, Forest was condemned to death by burning. Anglican Bishop Hugh Latimer read out the "heresies" that Forest was required to rescind: "That the Holy Catholic Church was the Church of Rome, that the Pope’s pardon is key to the remission of our sins, and that a priest can change a penitent sinner, ..."

On 22 May, he was burnt to death at Smithfield, London. Hugh Latimer officiated at the execution. [2] Extra fuel for the pyre is said to have been provided by an enormous statue of "Derfel Gaetherin" from the pilgrimage site of Llandderfel in north Wales, and of which it had supposedly been prophesied, "would one day set a forest on fire." [3]

Father Forest, together with fifty-three other English martyrs, was declared Blessed by Pope Leo XIII, on 9 December 1886.

References

ee also

*Foxe's Book of Martyrs

External links

* [http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/wwwopac.exe?DATABASE=catalo%3ELondon&LANGUAGE=0&OPAC_URL=&SUCCESS=&FLD0=TR&OPR0=narrower&VAL0=Religious+orders&SRT0=D1&SEQ0=descending]