02Knights Templar - Julian Emperor

SAINTS
Aragon was void and therefore to be disregarded. Thus the
daughter born to him by Anne Boleyn was the rightful successor
to the throne. When the Carthusian Order was asked
to take the oath, Houghton came into conflict with the tyrannical
king. He attempted to avoid taking it and then went on
to state that the marriage of Henry and Catherine could not
be disregarded. The king moved quickly and Houghton and
other Carthusians were imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Attempts were made by the archbishop of York to persuade
them that acceptance of the oath was not in contravention of
their beliefs.They agreed in principle but added the ambiguous
statement that they accepted to the extent that the law
permitted it.
However, when it was demanded in 1535 that the
Carthusians take an oath recognising Henry VIII as the
Supreme Head on earth of the Church in England, they were
faced, like many other religious figures, with a crisis of conscience
and belief. Houghton held a meeting with the Vicar-
General, Thomas Cromwell, accompanied by fellow
Carthusian monks Prior Robert Lawrence and Augustine
Webster with the aim of agreeing to a compromise position as
they had done with the Oath of Succession. Cromwell was unsympathetic
to their requests and demanded an unequivocal
answer that they felt they could not give. In response to their
reluctance to take the oath, they were imprisoned in the
Tower of London. Houghton stood trial with other monks
from his order atWestminster Hall and, under severe pressure
from Cromwell, the jury found them to be guilty of treason.
They were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.They
were taken to Tyburn to be executed on 4 May 1535.
Houghton and his fellow Carthusians were offered a lastminute
opportunity to take the oath and avoid their terrible
•96•