1615: St. John Ogilvie
March 10th, 2009 Headsman
On this date in 1615, Scotland’s only post-Reformation Catholic martyr was hanged at Glasgow Cross.
The Protestant-born Ogilvie had been educated in Europe and there fallen under the sway of the Catholic faith forbidden in his homeland. He converted, trained as a Jesuit, and at his own request returned to minister to the secret Catholic population in Glasgow.
Within a year he was in irons, awaiting a death sentence he refused to spurn with a timely submission to King James‘ spiritual supremacy. Ogilvie greeted his conviction for treason — and like most Catholic martyrs in the British Isles, he protested his loyalty in vain — with the words,
God have mercie upon mee! … if there bee heere anie hidden catholikes, let them pray for me, but the Prayers of Heretickes I will not have.
John Ogilvie? (See Update below)
There’s a multilingual Jesuit text celebrating Ogilvie available free from Google books.
Glaswegians can watch for more demonstrative tribute at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, which is poised to produce a monumental mural by Peter Howson.
Part of the Themed Set: The Church confronts its competition.
Update: Friend of the blog Louise Yeoman, whose guest post on a witchcraft execution remains one of the best pieces in this humble space, has an interesting correction to offer on Saint J.O. According to Yeoman, disemboweling “was not part of Scots law until 1708, when the British government wanted to hang draw and quarter some of those involved in the abortive Jacobite uprising of that year and were shocked to find that Scotland had no such penalty.” She’s backed by this contemporaneous account of Ogilvie’s death, which observes that even the “quartering” part of the sentence was not carried out.
So, what gives with the image, if Ogilvie’s corpse wasn’t carved up?
It’s from this (U.S.) Library of Congress page which marks it as a representation of Ogilvie in a late 17th-century text of Bohemian Jesuit propagandist Matthias Tanner. That provenance, of course, would be consistent with a bit of sanguinary exaggeration. It’s also possible that it’s mislabeled on the Library of Congress page, whose identification of it seems a bit oblique.
Working as I am from secondary sources, I tread cautiously here and welcome further clarification or correction.
On this day..
- 1653: Felim O'Neill - 2020
- 1431: Thomas Bagley, Lollard martyr - 2019
- 1931: Alfred Arthur Rouse, Blazing Car Murderer - 2018
- 1714: A Tyburn dozen - 2017
- 1992: Robyn Leroy Parks, botched lethal injection - 2016
- 1899: Cordelia Poirier and Samuel Parslow - 2015
- 1865: Amy Spain, liberation anticipation - 2014
- 1777: James Aitken, aka John the Painter, terrorist of the American Revolution - 2013
- 1762: Jean Calas, intolerably - 2012
- 2010: Jihan Mohammed Ali and Atef Rohyum Abd El Al Rohyum, lovers - 2011
- Themed Set: The Contemporary Middle East - 2011
- 1799: The defenders of Jaffa, at Napoleon's command - 2010
- 1302: Dante Alighieri condemned - 2008
Entry Filed under: 17th Century,Arts and Literature,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,God,Hanged,History,Martyrs,Mature Content,Milestones,Public Executions,Religious Figures,Ripped from the Headlines,Scotland,Torture,Treason
Tags: 1610s, 1615, glasgow, glasgow cross, james vi and i, march 10, saints, st. andrew's cathedral, st. john ogilvie
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