HE was a zealous Englishman, whom St. Peter Nolasco received into his
Order at Barcelona. He made two journeys among the Moors for the ransom
of captives, in 1240. The first was to Murcia, in which he purchased the
liberty of ninety-eight slaves: the second to Algiers, in which he
redeemed eighty-seven, but remained himself a hostage for the full
payment of the money. He boldly preached Christ to the Mahometans, and
baptized several: for which he was cruelly tortured, scourged, cut and
mangled, at length fastened to a cross, and was thereon stabbed and
quartered alive in the same year, 1240. Pope Benedict XIII. declared him
a martyr, and proved his immemorial veneration in his Order, by a decree
in 1728, as Benedict XIV. relates. L. 2, de Canoniz. c. 24, p. 296.