Blessed Robert Drury

Robert Drury (1567–1607) was an English Roman Catholic priest, executed for treason. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987. He was born of a Buckinghamshire family, presumably the younger son of Robert Drury of Hedgerley and Chalfont St. Peter. He was received into the English College at Reims, 1 April 1588. On 17 September 1590, he was sent to the new college at Valladolid; here he finished his studies, was ordained priest and returned to England in 1593. He worked on his mission chiefly in London, and often stayed at a safe house where Anne Line sheltered priests. He was one of the appellants against the archpriest George Blackwell, and his name is affixed to the appeal of 17 November 1600, dated from Wisbech Castle. An invitation from the English Government to these priests to acknowledge their allegiance and duty to the queen (dated 5 November 1602) led to the loyal address of 31 January 1603, drawn up by Dr. William Bishop, and signed by thirteen of the leading priests, including Drury and Roger Cadwallader. In this address they acknowledged the queen as their lawful sovereign, repudiated the claim of the pope to release them from their duty of allegiance to her, and expressed their abhorrence of the forcible attempts already made to restore the Catholic religion and their determination to reveal any further conspiracies against the Government which should come to their knowledge. In return they pleaded that as they were ready to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's, so they might be permitted to yield to the successor of Peter that obedience which Peter himself might have claimed under the commission of Christ, and so to distinguish between their several duties and obligations as to be ready on the one hand "to spend their blood in defence of her Majesty", but on the other "rather to lose their lives than infringe the lawful authority of Christ's Catholic Church".