Walter Colman (1600–1645) was an English

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

Life

Colman was born in

Cannock Cannock () is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the nearby towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolv ...

, Staffordshire, to a noble and wealthy family. His father was also named Walter Coleman. His mother's family, the Whitgreaves, later gave asylum to Charles II in 1651 at Mosley Hall near

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

. Young Colman left England to study at the

English College, Douai The English College (''College des Grands Anglais'') was a Catholic seminary in Douai, France (also previously spelled Douay, and in English Doway), associated with the University of Douai. It was established in 1568, and was suppressed in 1793. ...

. In 1625 he entered the Franciscan Order at Douai, receiving in religion the name of Christopher of St. Clare, by which he is more generally known. Having completed his year of novitiate, he returned to England at the call of provincial superior Father John Jennings, but was immediately imprisoned because he refused to take the Oath of Allegiance. Released through the efforts of his friends, Colman went to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where he was employed in the duties of the ministry and where, during his leisure moments, he composed , or, ''Death's Duel'' (London, 1632 or 1633), an elegant metrical treatise on death, which he dedicated to Queen

Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She was ...

, consort of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. When religious persecution broke out anew in 1641, Colman returned to England from Douai, where he had gone to regain his health. On 8 December of the same year he was brought to trial, together with six other priests, two of whom were

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s, the other four were members of the secular clergy. They were all condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered on 13 December, but through the interposition of the French ambassador the execution was stayed indefinitely. Colman lingered on in Newgate Prison for several years until 1645, when he died, exhausted by starvation and the rigours of his confinement.

Notes

Attribution * cites: **Thaddeus, ''The Franciscans in England'' (London, 1898), 62, 72, 106 ** Anne Hope, ''Franciscan Martyrs in England'' (London, 1878), xi, 123 sqq **Mason, Certamen Seraphicum (Quaracchi, 1885), 211, 228 **Leo, Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis (Taunton, 1887), IV, 368.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colman, Walter 1600 births 1645 deaths English Catholic poets English College, Douai alumni English Roman Catholics English Friars Minor People from Cannock Prisoners who died in England and Wales detention