William Exmew | |
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Vicente Carducho: Martyrdom of Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate. Monastery of El Paular (Spain).
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Died | 19 June 1535 |
Honored in | Roman Catholicism |
Beatified | 9 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII |
William Exmew, O.Cart., (died Tyburn, 19 June 1535) was an English Catholic priest and Carthusian hermit. He died while imprisoned under King Henry VIII and is honored as a martyr by the Catholic Church. Exmew and his brother Carthusian martyrs were beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 9 December 1886.
Exmew was one of the first members of Christ's College, Cambridge, then just founded by Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the grandmother of Henry VIII. He became a proficient classical scholar. Entering the London Charterhouse, he was soon raised to the office of vicar or (sub-prior) then in 1534 he was named procurator. He was said to have had a particular reputation for learning.
The Crown was at first anxious to secure the public acquiescence of the monks of the London Charterhouse in the matter of the break with Rome, since for the austerity and sincerity of their mode of life they enjoyed great prestige. When there was unexpected resistance, the only alternative was terror. On 4 May 1535 the authorities sent to their death at Tyburn Tree three leading English Carthusians, Doms John Houghton, prior of the London house, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster, respectively priors of Beauvale and Axholme.