ANDERTON, ROBERT, BL.

Priest, martyr; b. Isle of Man; hanged, drawn, and quartered on the Isle of Wight, April 25, 1586. After completing his studies at Rivington grammar school and Brasenose College, Oxford, Anderton traveled abroad. He converted to Catholicism and entered the seminary at Rheims in 1580, where he began a lifelong friendship with Bl. William Marsden. Following their ordination, they set sail for England, where they were immediately captured after a storm forced the ship ashore. They pled after conviction that they had not transgressed the statute because they did not willingly land in England but were forced by nature to do so. This led to their being summoned to London, where they were examined upon the celebrated "bloody question," whether they would fight against the pope, even if the quarrel were for purely religious causes. Though they acknowledged Elizabeth as their lawful queen in all temporal matters, they would not consent to the required test. The sentence was then confirmed, and a proclamation was published to explain their guilt. They were taken back and executed near the place where they had been cast ashore. Anderton was beatified by Pius XI on Dec. 15, 1929.

Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England).

See Also: england, scotland, and wales, martyrs of.

Bibliography: r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924; repr. Farnborough 1969), 66–82. j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891).

[k. i. rabenstein]