ABEL, THOMAS (better ABELL) (d. 1540), an English priest who was martyred during the reign of Henry VIII., and beatified by Pope Leo XIII. In 1533, he published his Invicta Veritas (with the fictitious pressmark of Luneberge to avoid suspicion) in answer to the tracts supporting Henry's ecclesiasti cal claims. After an imprisonment of more than six years, Abel was sentenced to death for denying the royal supremacy in the church, and was executed at Smithfield on July 3o, 154o.
See J. Gillow's Bibl. Dictionary of Eng. Catholics, vol. Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII., vol. iv.-vii. passim.