Editing Thomas Abel (martyr)

{{Short description|English Roman Catholic priest and martyr}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[beatification|Blessed]] 
|name=Thomas Abell
|image=
|imagesize=
|caption=
|titles=Martyr
|birth_date=ca. 1497
|birth_place=unknown
|death_date={{death date|1540|7|30|df=y}} (aged 42 - 43)
|death_place=[[Smithfield, London]], England
|feast_day=4 May, 30 July
|beatified_date=29 December 1886
|beatified_place=Rome, Italy,
|beatified_by=[[Pope Leo XIII]] 
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|major_shrine=
|attributes=
|patronage=Oxford Gregorian Chant Society
|issues=
|suppressed_date=
|venerated_in=Roman [[Catholic Church]]
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

'''Thomas Abel''' (or '''Abell''') (ca. 1497 &ndash; 30 July 1540) was an [[England|English]] [[priesthood (Catholic Church)|priest]] who was [[martyr]]ed during the reign of [[Henry VIII]]. The place and date of his birth are unknown.

He was educated at [[Oxford]], where in 1516 he took the degree of Master of Arts, and subsequently acquired a doctorate in theology.<ref name=Camm>{{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ukMaAAAAMAAJ&dq=Bl.+Thomas+Abel&pg=PA462| title = Camm, Bede. ''Lives of the English Martyrs Declared Blessed by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and 1895'', Vol. 1, Burns and Oates, 1904| last1 = Camm| first1 = Bede| year = 1904}}</ref> He entered the service of [[Catherine of Aragon|Queen Catherine]] as her [[chaplain]] some time before 1528 and appears to have taught the queen modern languages and music. Catherine sent him to [[Spain]] in 1528 to the emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] on a mission relating to the proposed divorce. On his return she presented him with the parochial [[benefice]] of [[Bradwell-on-Sea|Bradwell]], in [[Essex]],<ref name=shahan>{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14659b.htm| title = Shahan, Thomas. "Bl. Thomas Abel." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 28 May 2013}}</ref> and he remained to the last a staunch supporter of the unfortunate queen in the case of the validity of her marriage with [[Henry VIII]].

In 1532, he published his ''Invicta veritas. An answere, That by no manner of law, it may be lawfull for the most noble King of England, King Henry the eight to be divorced from the queens grace, his lawfull and very wife. B.L.''.  Abel's treatise was printed by [[Merten de Keyser]] in [[Antwerp]] with the fictitious pressmark of Luneberge, to avoid suspicion.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dbnl.nl/tekst/kron001verb01_01/kron001verb01_01_0007.htm| title = M.E. Kronenberg, Verboden boeken en opstandige drukkers in de Hervormingstijd, Amsterdam, 1948, p. 107.}}</ref> The work contained an answer to the numerous tracts supporting Henry's ecclesiastical claims. The king bought up copies of the book in order to destroy them.<ref name=Camm/>

For this he was thrown into the Beauchamp Tower in the [[Tower of London]], and after a year's liberation again imprisoned, in December 1533, on the charges of disseminating the prophecies of the [[Elizabeth Barton|Maid of Kent]], encouraging the queen "obstinately to persist in her wilful opinion against the same divorce and separation", and maintaining her right to the title of queen. He was kept in close confinement until his execution at [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]], two days after the execution of [[Thomas Cromwell]]. There is still to be seen on the wall of his prison in the Tower of London a [[rebus]] consisting of the symbol of a bell with an A upon it and the name Thomas above, which he carved during his confinement. There is extant a very pious Latin letter written by him to a fellow-martyr, and another to Cromwell, begging for some slight mitigation of his "close prison"; "license to go to church and say [[mass (liturgy)|Mass]] here within the Tower and for to lie in some house upon the Green". It is signed "by your daily bedeman, Thomas Abell, priest".<ref name=shahan/>
  
His [[act of attainder]] states that he and three others "have most traitorously adhered themselves unto the [[Pope|bishop of Rome]], being a common enemy unto your Majesty and this your Realm, refusing your Highness to be our and their Supreme Head of this your Realm of England". Abel was sentenced to "be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged, cut down alive, your members to be cut off and cast in the fire, your bowels burnt before your eyes, your head smitten off, your body to be quartered at the King's will, [[May God have mercy upon your soul|and God have mercy on your soul]]."<ref>John Lander, ''The Queen's Champion: A Forgotten Hero at the Court of Henry VII'', Up Front Publishing Ltd (2008)</ref>

==Veneration==
Thomas Abel was [[beatification|beatified]] by [[Pope Leo XIII]] as one of a group of fifty-four [[List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation|English Martyrs]] on 29 December 1886.

He is a patron of the Oxford Gregorian Chant Society, a student society of Oxford University.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Joseph |date=2008-01-15 |title=Gregorian Chant Society: Bl Thomas Abel |url=http://oxfordgregorianchant.blogspot.com/2008/01/bl-thomas-abel.html |access-date=2023-01-12 |publisher=Gregorian Chant Society}}</ref>

{{EB1911 poster|Abel, Thomas}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abell, Thomas}}
[[Category:1490s births]]
[[Category:1540 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:English beatified people]]
[[Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Executed English people]]
[[Category:People executed under the Tudors for treason against England]]
[[Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs]]
[[Category:16th-century venerated Christians]]
[[Category:People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging]]
[[Category:People executed under Henry VIII]]
[[Category:Forty-one Martyrs of England and Wales]]