The Winchester Martyrs – a talk by Dr. Lucy Wooding following a memorial service in Chapel

The Winchester Martyrs - a talk by Dr Lucy Wooding following a memorial service in Chapel

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Lucy Wooding, Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College Oxford to give a talk on the ‘Winchester Martyrs’.

The Winchester Catholic History Society writes of the Winchester Martyrs:

When Elizabeth 1 introduced the Act of Uniformity in 1558, Mass continued to be said in Winchester by the Dean and Canons of the Cathedral, the Warden and Fellows of Winchester College and the Master of St Cross. This, of course, eventually ceased as attendance at Common Prayer, as laid down in the Act, became compulsory.  Anyone who refused to do so was labelled a Recusant, literally one who refuses.

There were a few Catholics who, despite the post-Reformation religious havoc wreaked by the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, refused to be coerced into abandoning their allegiance to the Pope. All this came at a high cost. To be a Catholic was to be a traitor.  Hundreds of priests and lay people were tortured and executed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The present Catholic Church in Jewry Street, Winchester, is named St Peter and the Winchester Martyrs, in memory of those who died for their faith. 

Dr. Wooding’s talk will follow a special service in Chapel remembering those who died for their faith. 

We also hope to arrange a Winchester Martyrs-themed exhibition of books from the Fellows’ Library.  Details to follow.