ENGLAND'S FATHER MUMFORD, HERO FOR THE HOLY SOULS
England's Father James Mumford could be an uncanonized saint. Born in East Anglia in 1606, he was raised in one of the wealthiest and most populous areas of the British Isles. But he came of age in a time of dire anti-Catholic persecution. The Faith was illegal, had to be taught illicitly and secretly. If discovered, a seminarian could expect imprisonment, torture and execution. This didn't stop James Mumford from entering the Jesuits in 1626 - reading this made me take a sharp intake of breath - at that exact time anxiety about the influence of Roman Catholics was at its height when England's King Charles I married the winsome Henrietta Marie, a French Catholic. There was an energetic move led by Protestants to expunge "Popish" influences, especially concerning Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Protestants were winning the theological battle; there was an official ban on teaching about Purgatory, it was denounced as "superstition", and false claims abound...
