Richard Atkins (1559?–1581), was an English

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

. Atkins was born at Ross in

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

. Until he was nineteen years old he was a Catholic, after that a Protestant, but for how long is uncertain. About Midsummer 1581 he was at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

armed with his New Testament. For his language towards the clergy on the 'misorder of their lives,' and his denunciations against the Church, he was imprisoned for a short time by the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

. Upon his release he proceeded to a series of acts that finally brought him to

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

and the stake. He was charged with exclaiming against (western) Christianity as it then stood and in particular against the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

in public places of resort, and with an act of

sacrilege Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physica ...

in attempting to throw down the sacrament while being carried through the streets by a priest. It was stated that a few days later, he had gone to

St Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a Church (building), church built in the Renaissance architecture, Renaissanc ...

once again, while diverse gentlemen and others were hearing mass, he stepped forward to the altar 'and threw down the chalice with the wine,' and strove to pull the host out of the priest's hand before its consecration. Being committed to prison a second time and examined, his reply was 'that he came purposely to rebuke the

popes The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

' wickedness and their idolatry.' After many exhortations by his countrymen to recant, but in vain, he was brought to the stake with many tortures and burned before St. Peter's, 2 August 1581.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Richard Year of birth uncertain 1581 deaths People of the Elizabethan era People from Herefordshire 16th-century Protestant martyrs English people martyred elsewhere