Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bales, Christopher

737534Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 03 — Bales, Christopher1885Thompson Cooper

BALES or BAYLES, alias Evers, CHRISTOPHER (executed 1589–90), priest, was a native of Cunsley, in the diocese of Durham, and studied in the English colleges at Rome and Rheims. From the latter he was sent on the English mission in 1588. Having been apprehended soon afterwards, he was tried and convicted under the statute of 27 Eliz. for taking priest's orders beyond the seas, and coming into England to exercise his sacerdotal functions. He was drawn to a gallows at the end of Fetter Lane, in Fleet Street, London, and hanged, disembowelled, and quartered, 4 March 1589-90. Two laymen suffered the same day for relieving and entertaining him, viz. Nicholas Horner in Smithfield, and Alexander Blage in Gray's Inn Lane.

[Stow's Annales, 760; Challoner's Missionary Priests (1803), i. 135; State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, ccxxx. art. 57; Dodd's Ch. Hist. ii. 75.]