Paging Rowan Williams’ Compassion

Today marks the commemoration of Blessed William Carter, who was hung, drawn,and quartered at Tyburn on this date in 1584. Born in 1548, Carter was apprenticed to the Queen’s printer, John Cawood, for ten years on Candlemass Day, 1563. Sometime later he served as secretary to Nicholas Harpsfield, the last Catholic archdeacon of Canterbury. Harpsfield, you’ll recall, authored one of the first biographies of Thomas More, and was the author of the wildly successful Treatise on the Pretended Divorce. After the deaths of Queen Mary and Cardinal Reginald Pole, Harpsfield refused to attend the election of Matthew Parker, an act that would endear him to the Fleet prison until his death.
Likely encouraged by Harpsfield’s literary and theological acumen, Carter set up a press on Tower Hill and reprinted, at 1000 copies, Gregory Martin’s (of Douay-Reims Bible fame) A Treatise of Schism in 1580. For his efforts, Carter was arrested under pretenses of treason and languished in the Tower until his death four years later. It is said that the jury only took fifteen minutes to reach its guilty verdict. Carter was venerated on 10 November 1986 and beatified on 22 November 1987 by Pope John Paul II. His life is also celebrated on 22 November in the Feast of the Martyrs of England, Scotland, and Whales.