Pickering (Catholic Encyclopedia article)
Gilbert Huddleston · 1913
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Description
Thomas Pickering was an English Benedictine lay brother and martyr, born about 1621 to an old Westmoreland family. Sent to St. Gregory's at Douai, he took vows as a lay brother in 1660 and went to London in 1665 as steward to the Benedictines serving the queen's chapel royal. There he became known to the queen and Charles II, and when Parliament drove the Benedictines out in 1675, he alone was allowed to stay, probably as no priest.
Titus Oates's pretended revelations of 1678 accused him of plotting the king's murder. No evidence but Oates's word appeared, and the queen publicly believed him innocent, yet the jury condemned him with two others to hanging, drawing, and quartering. Charles twice reprieved the three, then yielded to Commons' petition of April 1679. Pickering alone was executed, on 9 May 1679, his blood-stained cloth kept at Downside.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Gilbert Huddleston |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 1913 |
| COLLECTION | REFERENCE |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 2 KB |
| LICENSE | PUBLIC_DOMAIN |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | New Advent — Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) |