John Bodey

John Bodey (15492 November 1583) was an English Catholic academic jurist and lay theologian. He was martyred in 1583, and beatified in 1929.

Life John Bodey was born in Wells, Somerset, in 1549. His father was a wealthy merchant. He studied at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568 and took an M.A. degree in February 1576. In June 1576, he and seven others were deprived of their fellowships by the visitor, Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester, and expelled.

The following year he went to Douay College to study civil law, but returned to England in February 1578. Upon his return, he became a schoolmaster in Hampshire. Arrested in 1580, he was kept in iron shackles in Winchester gaol, and was condemned in April 1583, together with John Slade, a schoolmaster, for high treason by denying the Royal Supremacy. There was apparently a feeling that this sentence was unjust and illegal, and they were retried—and condemned again—at Andover, Hampshire, in August 1583.

Bodey's brother Gilbert was arrested with Alexander Briant on 28 April 1581. He was scourged at Bridewell and afterwards confined at one of the Counter Prisons. He was released on bond, and when not called to appear, escaped to Rheims.

John Slade

Like Bodey, Slade attended the New College, Oxford until, being expelled for being Catholic, he traveled to Douai to take the study of law. However, since as a Catholic he was not permitted to practice, he became a tutor in a gentleman's household in Dorset. Slade was eventually arrested and confined with Bodey at Winchester. Slade was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Winchester 30 October 1583.