List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation

In the reign of Pope Gregory XIII (1572–85), authorisation was given for 63 recognised martyrs to have their relics honoured and pictures painted for Catholic devotions.

Further groups of martyrs were subsequently documented and proposed by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales and formally recognised by Rome.

[2] Of those: As well as those listed below, John Fisher and Thomas More were beatified on this date, as were 11 members[a] of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, making a total of 54.

Order of Carthusians Diocesan Clergy Society of Jesus (Jesuits) Franciscan Friars Minor (Observants) Roman Catholic Laity As well as those listed below, 29 members[b] of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales were also beatified on that date, making a total of 136.

"[52] Of those five, Thomas Plumtree had been chaplain to the insurgents in the Rising of the North, John Felton had published Pope Pius V's Bull Regnans in Excelsis ("reigning on high"), excommunicating Queen Elizabeth, John Story was tried for high treason, for having supported the Rising of the North and encouraging the Duke of Alba to invade, Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, had led the Rising of the North, and Thomas Woodhouse had declared in a letter to William Cecil that Elizabeth "for her own great disobedience is most justly deposed".

In 1585, a new decree made it a crime punishable by death to go overseas to receive the sacrament of Ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood.