4th June 1578_ 16. Edmund Tanner, Bishop of Cork

.EDMUND TANNER, BISHOP OF CORKHe was a native of the city of Cork.[1] He lived for some years in the Society of Jesus, and during that time made extraordinary progress in virtue; but after some years, owing to illness, he left the Order, with the full consent of the Fathers.[2]He was appointed Bishop of Cork[3] November 5th 1574. But hardly had the burthen of the episcopate been laid on him, when he was taken to Dublin and imprisoned there for having opposed the unjust laws of the Queen. While in prison he was tortured in divers ways, and more than once he was hung up for two hours, while his hands were tied behind his back with a rope. Broken with these and various other sufferings, he went to receive the reward of his labours on the 4th of June, 1578, after an imprisonment of eighteen months.See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, and Lynch.[1] In a papal document in the Irish Ecci. Record, 6. 147, he is said to have been a native of the (ecclesiastical) province of Dublin.[2] Through great sickness and not without the licence of his superiors, and the advice of physicians, he was enforced to come forth out of the Society.’ Lynch, De Pres. Hib., ii. 612[3] See Brady’s Epis. Succession, ii.86, and Irish Ecci. Record, i.316Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!May the martyrs of old inspire us all.