ABEL (ABLE, ABBLE), THOMAS, blessed. — English theologian, who died at Smithfield on 30 July 1540. In 1516 he was «Magister artium» at Oxford and became domestic chaplain to Queen Caterina di Aragona, first wife of Enrico VIII.
A vigorous defender of the marriage bond, he helped to reaffirm the queen in the same convictions. Against Enrico VIII he first wrote Invicta veritas (Luneberg: fictitious place of publication, 1533), and then a Tractatus de non dissolvendo Henrici et Catharinae matrimonio (1534). After six and a half years in prison, he was condemned with others, including Edward Powel and Featherstone, to beheading. He was beatified by Leone XIII in 1886.
BIBL.: B. Canon, Lives of the English Martyrs, I. Londra 1904, pp. 463-83; J. H. Pollen, Acts of the English Martyrs, I. Londra 1904, pp. 462-83; J. Spillmann, Geschichte der Katholikensverfolgung in England, I. 3ª ediz., Friburgo in Br. 1910, pp. 276-83 Cesare Bertola