signed "by your daily bedeman, Thomas Abell, priest". His act of attainder states that he and three others "have most traitorously adhered themselves unto the bishop of Rome, being a common enemy unto your Majesty and this your Realm, refusing your Highness to be our and their Supreme Head of this your Realm of England". Abel was sentenced to "be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged, cut down alive, your members to be cut off and cast in the fire, your bowels burnt before your eyes, your head smitten off, your body to be quartered at the King's will, and God have mercy on your soul." Veneration He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII as one of a group of fifty-four English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. He is a patron of the Oxford Gregorian Chant Society, a student society of Oxford University. References 1490s births 1540 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford English beatified people 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests Executed English people People executed under the Tudors for treason against England 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 16th-century venerated Christians People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging People executed under Henry VIII Forty-one Martyrs of England and Wales