JOHNSON, THOMAS, BL.

Carthusian priest, martyr; starved to death at New-gate Prison, London, Sept. 20, 1537. Thomas, a monk at the London Charterhouse, had already seen the deaths of many of his Carthusian brothers, including the priors SS. John houghton, Robert lawrence, and Augustine webster (d. 1535), as well as others. On May 18, 1537, the 38 remaining monks of the London Charterhouse were required to take the Oath of Supremacy. Frs. Thomas Johnson, Richard Bere, and Thomas Green, as well as John Davy and the lay brothers Robert Salt, William Greenwood, Thomas Redyng, Thomas Scryven, Walter Pierson, and William Horne were imprisoned at Newgate for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church in England. There they were chained to posts with their hands behind them and left to die. St. Thomas More's former ward, Margaret Giggs Clement bribed the jailer to allow her access to the prisoners to feed them. This continued for some time until authorities questioned the monks' continued survival without food. Seven died June 6–16 (Greenwood, Davy, Salt, Pierson, Green, Scryven, and Redyng). Thereafter it appears Cromwell ordered that the remaining monks be fed so that they could stand for execution, but it is believed that Johnson was eventually starved to death. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on Dec. 9, 1886.

Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England).

See Also: england, scotland, and wales, martyrs of.

Bibliography: r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924; repr. Farnborough 1969). j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891).

[k. i. rabenstein]