TURNER, ANTONY, BL.

Jesuit priest, martyr; b. 1628, Dalby Parva, Leicestershire, England; hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn (London), June 20, 1679. As the son of a Protestant minister, Antony attended Cambridge. There both he and his brother Edward converted to Catholicism. Both entered the English College at Rome (1650), but Antony left for the Jesuit novitiate at Watten, Flanders, in April 1653, studied theology at Liège, and was ordained (1659). Thereafter he ministered for 18 years in the environs of Worchester (1661–78). In September 1678 the fictitious Oates Plot became public. Turner went to London

to seek the means to escape to the Continent (January 1679). Finding no assistance, he gave away his last money and surrendered himself to the justice as an illegal priest. He was incarcerated at the Gatehouse, then at Newgate. He stood trial at the Old Bailey on the charge of conspiracy to assassinate the king and was convicted based on perjured testimony. On the gallows he declared his innocence in the Oates Plot, forgave those involved in his death, and asked for God's mercy. He was beatified by Pius XI on Dec. 15, 1929.

Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England); December 1 (Jesuits).

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). j. n. tylenda, Jesuit Saints & Martyrs (Chicago 1998), a179–81.

[k. i. rabenstein]