A museum of artefacts collected by Jesuits over five centuries has opened in Lancashire. The Old Chapel Museum, at Stonyhurst College in Clitheroe, includes St Thomas More’s hat, a prayer book belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots, and the rope used at the execution of St Edmund Campion. The museum, made possible by the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst, is available for group bookings from January. It was blessed by Bishop John Arnold of Salford earlier this month. The bishop said: “This important collection tells the story of the courage of our brothers and sisters in faith to remain steadfast against all the odds.” Other items in the collection include a thorn from the Crown of Thorns and the skull of Cardinal John Morton, a mentor to St Thomas More. It is believed to be the oldest surviving museum collection in the English-speaking world. It dates back to the time of the Tudor monarchs, when vestments, manuscripts, silver and relics collected by Catholics were smuggled over to St Omer in France for safekeeping. The Old Chapel Museum does not only hold artefacts with a Catholic history. It displays items up to 5,000 years old, from the prehistoric period to Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. It has a number of items related to St Thomas More, including two golden crucifixes along with a hat embroidered by his daughter. Lord Alton of Liverpool, chairman of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst, said the next phase of the project would be the multimillion-pound restoration of an old mill building into Theodore House, a retreat, study and leadership centre, named in honour of St Theodore of Tarsus, a Syrian refugee and onetime Archbishop of Canterbury.