An Essex Martyr

DY an inscription in the shadow of its Li Norma a keep, Colchester preserves the memory of two ill-fated royalists. Lucas and Lisle, whore execution was an ill requital for their surrender to the Roundhead besiegers. But. how many Colcestriana, one wonders, will have a thought to-day for a town's Victim further back in history: Colchester's last Abbot, Blessed John Beche? If there is commemoration of Blessed John, it. will likely be on the part of worshippers in Priory Street, where the Church of St. James the Less and St. Helen has had altar and Mass for a great many years pest. Just four hundred years ago the Benedictine Abbot was led out to martyrdom in the ancient town where he had withstood a tyrant's will. Of his Abbey of St. Jahn the Baptist there remains, with what else is above ground, the gracious and dignified gateway through which the abbot must often have bent his steps. Hanged, drawn and quartered: such, on December I, 1530, was the end of John Beche. With Blessed John Payne, of Chelmsford, Colchest.er'a abbot keeps
M
Essex the illustrious record of our
M
Essex the illustrious record of our English martyrs.
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