From 1535 to 1681 Tyburn was transformed into a place of cruelty, torture and execution for men and women who suffered on Tyburn Tree for their religious belief. According to the laws of the land in force at that time, it became an act of high treason to be a Catholic priest, or to associate with Catholic priests. It was also legal treason to refuse to accept the King as "the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England", in the reign of King Henry VIII from 1534 onwards. Under Queen Elizabeth I similar laws continued. Under Charles I and Charles II especially similar laws brought many Catholic priests to martyrdom on Tyburn Tree. The infamous Titus Oates Plot and the persecution following it from 1678 to 1681 was the final stage of this one hundred and fifty years of religious persecution against Catholics.

These 105 Catholic Martyrs of Tyburn suffered death then, because they freely chose fidelity to the Bishop of Rome as the true Head of the Church on earth. They also suffered death at Tyburn because they were 'Mass saying priests"' or helped such priests.

Tyburn was the place of execution for those convicted of legal treason. But in the case of these religious martyrs "treason" was simply a legal excuse to get rid of them.
These martyrs brought a new spirit into the barbarities and butchery of Tyburn. This new spirit was one of spiritual joy, spontaneous humour and wholehearted forgiveness of those who had brought them to their life's end at Tyburn.

This spirit flowed over into the crowds around the Tyburn Gallows. When Blessed Thomas Maxfield was dragged to the Tyburn Tree in 1616, the Gallows had been adorned with garlands of fragrant flowers while the ground around it was strewn with sweet-smelling herbs and branches of laurel and bay.

Blessed Philip Powel announced from the Tyburn Tree - "This is the happiest day and the greatest joy that ever befell me, for I am brought hither for no other cause or reason than that I am a Roman Catholic priest and a monk of the Order of St Benedict." (1646)

Saint Edmund Campion, Jesuit priest, prayed on the scaffold for those responsible for his death - "I recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of hearts, to the end that we may at last be friends in heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten." (1581)

Edward Morgan, priest, was reproved by a minister on the scaffold for being so cheerful. The martyr replied - "Why should anyone be offended at my going to heaven cheerfully?
For God loves a cheerful giver." (1642)

Thus the holy Martyrs transformed Tyburn's Deadly Nevergreen Tree into the Tree of Life and the Gate of Heaven, which it remains to this very day.

T.S.Eliot wrote about the execution of St Thomas a Becket -

"Wherever a saint has dwelt,
wherever a Martyr has given his blood for Christ,
there is holy ground,
and the sanctity shall not depart from it."