Martyrdom is a term that refers to the voluntary death of a person often for religious purposes or as the result of persecution. Martyrs often sacrificed their own lives for a particular cause rather than, in the case of Christians, betray their beliefs. In the Christian tradition, after their deaths many martyrs became saints. Saints are religious people who are recognized as being exceptionally holy by the Church. Yet saints and martyrs served other purposes other than just to honour the holy work that the particular individual had done in their lifetime. Saints or martyrs were often associated with particular places and this therefore led to benefits for the people of this area. Accounts of saints and martyrs in the early modern period
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These accounts portray the horrors that these clerics were faced with for being a member of the Catholic faith. Defence of the Innocent Irish who have been brazenly dishonoured by Richard Stanlihurst was written in Ireland around the year 1635 and it accounts for many Irish martyrs who suffered death due to their religious beliefs. The descriptions of the horrific deaths faced by these holy men are graphic and depict them as brave figures who deserve to be remembered by the Church for their sacrifices. The description of Dermot Hurley’s untimely death at the hands of the English served to account for his martyrdom while also portraying the evil nature of English protestants. A list of the titles bestowed to Hurley are mentioned in the text. Hurley was a Doctor in both Laws, Professor of Canon Law in the Holy College of the French at Rheims and he was also appointed Archbishop of Cashel by Pope Gregory 13. Hurley is depicted as a devout member of the Catholic church who was cruelly taken away by “English heretics while devoutly performing his duties for the good many in Ireland”. In these passages the English are portrayed as bloodletting heretics, during this period heresy was the ultimate sin within the Catholic Church. Heresy is defined as being a “belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine” . After the Reformation, those who became Protestants were declared heretics by the Catholic Church. This particular account shows the brutality used by the English against the Archbishop. It is claimed that the Archbishop of Cashel was “cooked and scorched” above a fire for many hours before they “put a noose about his neck and hung him from the gallows” . The account of the Archbishops death is not a neutral, strictly factual document of the events that occurred but historically these accounts are vitally
These accounts portray the horrors that these clerics were faced with for being a member of the Catholic faith. Defence of the Innocent Irish who have been brazenly dishonoured by Richard Stanlihurst was written in Ireland around the year 1635 and it accounts for many Irish martyrs who suffered death due to their religious beliefs. The descriptions of the horrific deaths faced by these holy men are graphic and depict them as brave figures who deserve to be remembered by the Church for their sacrifices. The description of Dermot Hurley’s untimely death at the hands of the English served to account for his martyrdom while also portraying the evil nature of English protestants. A list of the titles bestowed to Hurley are mentioned in the text. Hurley was a Doctor in both Laws, Professor of Canon Law in the Holy College of the French at Rheims and he was also appointed Archbishop of Cashel by Pope Gregory 13. Hurley is depicted as a devout member of the Catholic church who was cruelly taken away by “English heretics while devoutly performing his duties for the good many in Ireland”. In these passages the English are portrayed as bloodletting heretics, during this period heresy was the ultimate sin within the Catholic Church. Heresy is defined as being a “belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine” . After the Reformation, those who became Protestants were declared heretics by the Catholic Church. This particular account shows the brutality used by the English against the Archbishop. It is claimed that the Archbishop of Cashel was “cooked and scorched” above a fire for many hours before they “put a noose about his neck and hung him from the gallows” . The account of the Archbishops death is not a neutral, strictly factual document of the events that occurred but historically these accounts are vitally