that, having been found guilty of a rape, in all
probability this story of his martyrdom, and of the miraculous
attestation to the truth of the cause for which he suffered, were
contrived for the purpose of preventing the scandal that would have
come upon the Church through the delinquency of an unworthy member. It
is further said that one of the family of the Kenyons attended as
under-sheriff at the execution, and that he refused the culprit some
trifling favour at the gallows, whereupon Arrowsmith denounced a curse
upon him, to wit, that, whilst the family could boast of an heir, so
long they never should want a cripple--a prediction which was supposed
by the credulous to have been literally fulfilled. But this story is
discredited, the real facts of the case, no doubt, being that he was
hanged "under sanction of an atrocious law, for no other reason but
because he had taken orders as a Roman Catholic priest, and had
endeavoured to prevail upon others to be of his own faith." According
to another version of the story, Edmund Arrowsmith was a native of
Haydock, in the parish of Winwick. He entered the Roman Catholic
College of Douay, where he was educated, afterwards being ordained
priest. But in the year 1628 he was apprehended and brought to
Lancaster on the charge of being a priest contrary to the laws of the
realm, and was executed on 26th August, 1628, his last words being
"Bone Jesu."[33] As recently as the year 1736, a boy of twelve years,
the son of Caryl Hawarden, of Appleton-within-Widnes, county of
Lancaster, is stated to have been cured of what appeared to be a fatal
malady by the application of Father Arrowsmith's hand, which was
effected in the following manner: The boy had been ill fifteen months,
and was at length deprived of the use of his limbs, with loss of his
memory and impaired sight. In this condition, which the physicians had
declared hopeless, it was suggested to his parents that, as wonderful
cures had been effected by the hand of "the martyred saint," it was
advisable to try its effects upon their afflicted child. The "holy
hand" was accordingly procured from Bryn, packed in a box and wrapped
in linen. Mrs. Hawarden, having explained to the invalid boy her hopes
and intentions, applied the back part of the dead hand to his back,
stroking it down each side the backbone and making the sign of the
Cross, which she accompanied with a fervent prayer that Jesus Christ
would aid it with His blessing.
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