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Blessed John Storey

Also known as

John Story

1 June
1 December as one of the Martyrs of Oxford University

Profile

Educated at Oxford. Doctor of law. President of Broadgate Hall (modern Pembroke College) form 1537 to 1539. First Regius Professor of civil law. Married in 1547.

Member of the English Parliament in 1547. Opposed anti–Catholic laws enacted by King Edward VI. Imprisoned from 1548 to 1550 for opposed the Bill of Uniformity.

On his release, he and his family moved to Leuven, Belgium, but returned to England in August 1553 when Catholic Queen Mary ascended to the throne. Chancellor to Bishop Edmund Bonner. Member of Parliament again from 1553 to 1560. In 1560 he opposed the Bill of Supremacy, and incurred the ire of Queen Elizabeth. Imprisoned in Fleet Prison on 20 May 1560, he escaped, was captured at Marshalsea, and re-imprisoned.

Escaping again, he fled the country to Antwerp, Belgium. There he renounced his English citizenship, and became a subject of the Catholic Spanish crown. Customs official in Flanders.

Kidnapped at Bergen-op-Zoon by agents of Queen Elizabeth in August 1570. Returned to England, he was locked in the Tower of London and repeatedly tortured. Indicted on 26 May 1571 for conspiring against the Queen‘s life. Throughout his misery, John claimed his innocence, and the court’s lack of jurisdiction over him, a Spanish subject. Condemned on 27 May 1571. Martyr.