John Bodey (b. at Wells, Somerset, 1549; executed at Andover, Hampshire, 2 November 1583) was an English Roman Catholic academic jurist and theologian. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.
Life[]
He studied at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568. In June, 1576, he was deprived, with seven other Fellows, by the Visitor, Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester.
Next year he went to Douay College to study civil law, returned to England in February, 1578, and probably married. Arrested in 1580, he was kept in iron shackles in Winchester gaol, and was condemned in April, 1583, together with John Slade, a schoolmaster, for maintaining the old religion and denying the Royal Supremacy. There was apparently a feeling that this sentence was unjust and illegal, and they were actually tried and condemned agaiin at Andover, 19 August, 1583, on the same indictment.
Bodey had a controversy with Lawrence Humphrey, Dean of Winchester, on the Nicene Council, and his notes from Eusebius still exist. After his second trial, he wrote from prison to Dr. Humphrey Ely, "We consider that iron for this cause borne on earth shall surmount gold and, precious stones in Heaven. That is our mark, that is our desire. In the mean season we are threatened daily, and do look still when the hurdle shall be brought to the door. I beseech you, for God's sake, that we want not the good prayers of you all for our strength, our joy, and our perseverance unto the end. ... From our school of patience the 16th September, 1583."
References[]
- Account of the trial and execution of John Slade, schoolmaster, and John Body, M.A., by R. B. (London, 1583);
- Richard Challoner, Memoirs;
- Nicholas Sanders, Anglican Schism, ed. Lewis (London, 1877);
- John Hungerford Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891);
- J. B. Wainewright, Two English Martyrs: Body and Munden (London, Catholic Truth Society);
- Thomas Francis Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878);
- William Allen, A true, sincere, and modest defence of English Catholiques (Reims, 1584)
This article incorporates text from the entry Ven. John Bodey in Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913, a publication now in the public domain.