Christopher Bales

Christopher Bales, also spelt Christopher Bayles, alias Christopher Evers (1564–1590), was an English Catholic priest and martyr. He was beatified in 1929.

Biography Christopher was born at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564. He entered the English College at Rome on 1 October 1583, but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims. Bales suffered from consumption.

He was ordained on 28 March 1587 at Reims. Sent to England on 2 November 1588, he was soon arrested, racked and tortured by Topcliffe, and hung up by the hands for twenty-four hours at a time and "bore all most patiently".

Bales was tried and condemned for high treason on the charge of having been ordained beyond seas and coming to England to exercise his office. He asked Judge Anderson whether Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English (who did the same), was also a traitor; the judge said no, but that the act had since been made treason by law. opposite Fetter Lane. On the gibbet was set a placard: "For treason and favouring foreign invasion". He spoke to the people from the ladder, saying that his only "treason" was his priesthood. On the same day, Nicholas Horner was executed in Smithfield for having made Bales a jerkin, and Alexander Blake for lodging him in his house.