Oxford Martyrs

In 1555 and 1556, the Oxford Martyrs were burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs (against the Catholic rule).

Hugh Latimer, once Bishop of Worcester, Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, were three of the 280 people who were killed for heresy because of their Protestant beliefs. This was during the short 5-year reign of Mary I, when England officially, yet briefly, returned to Roman Catholicism.

A cross in the centre of Oxford’s Broad Street marks the spot where, almost 500 years before, three men were legally burnt to death. Their crime was their faith.