Following the dispute between the Pope and King Henry VIII, faith questions in the British Isles became entangled with political questions, with both often being settled by torture and beheading of loyal Catholics. In 1970, the Vatican selected 40 martyrs, men and women, lay and religions, to represent the full group of perhaps 300 who died for their faith and allegiance to the Church between 1535 and 1679.
They areCarthusians:
Augustine Webster John Houghton, 1535 Robert Lawrence, 1535 Brigittine: Richard Reynolds, 1535 Augustinian friar: John Stone, 1539 Jesuits: Alexander Briant, 1581 Edmund Arrowsmith 1628 Edmund Campion 1581 David Lewis, 1679 Henry Morse, 1645 Henry Walpole, 1595 Nicholas Owen, Jesuit laybrother, 1606 Philip Evans, 1679 Robert Southwell, 1595 Thomas Garnet, 1608 Benedictines: Alban Roe, 1642 Ambrose Barlow, 1641 John Roberts, 1610 Friar Obervant: John Jones, 1598 Franciscan John Wall, 1679 Secular Clergy: Cuthbert Mayne, 1577 Edmund Gennings, 1591 Eustace White, 1591 John Almond, 1612 John Boste, 1594 John Kemble, 1679 John Lloyd, 1679 John Pain, 1582 John Plessington, 1679 John Southworth, 1654 Luke Kirby, 1582 Polydore Plasden, 1591 Ralph Sherwin, 1581 Laymen: John Rigby Philip Howard Richard Gwyn Swithun Wells, schoolmaster, 1591 Laywomen: Anne Line, widow Margaret Clitherow Margaret Ward