I beg God Almighty to shower down a thousand and a thousand blessings upon his Majesty……and all the royal family, and also on the whole kingdom. As for the Catholics that are here, we desire their prayers for a happy passage into a better world, and that God would be merciful to all Christian souls….. and so I beseech all good people to pray for us and with us.
Said by Blessed William Ireland, a Jesuit priest, before his execution at Tyburn on January 24, 1679. His execution had been delayed twice because King Charles II was convinced that Titus Oates, who sent fifteen Catholics to execution, was a liar and there was no plot against his life by Catholics. In 1685, a few days after the King died, a death bed convert to Catholicism, Oates was brought to trial for perjury. Convicted, he was whipped from Newgate to Tyburn, a distance of three miles.
